Education in California
[1] This formed an incentive to both learn to read and write for oneself and provide this for one's children through whatever means possible.
[2] The first recorded school in California was opened in 1795 by Manuel de Vargas, a retired sergeant, in San Jose.
[3][4] Small schools taught by retired soldiers continued to operate through the revolution years and independence from Spain in 1821.
The first truancy law was issued in 1828 by Governor José María de Echeandía, ordered the commanding officers to compel parents to send their children to the schools which he had established.
An example was opened by Don Guillermo Arnel near present-day Salinas on December 10, 1833 on his plantation Rancho El Alisal.
At the time of American annexation there were only a few hundred literate residents in the state [5] out of a population of 26,000[6] for a 2% literacy rate.
The classes taught at the primary level were orthography, reading, writing, grammar, geography, arithmetic, algebra, history, French, and Spanish.
From this foundation the California education system expanded to form secondary schools, and institutions of higher learning.
The origins of the public higher education system began in 1857, with the establishment of the California State Normal School.
[15] LCFF makes up the largest chunk of public school funding, including property and local taxes.
Schools receive a general, “basic aid” amount, based on a formula for the grades a school holds, number of students, etc… In a "basic aid" district, property taxes generate more revenue than the funding limit, a benchmark set by the state to qualify for additional funding.
In a report to the public, the federal government noted that 75% of California schools, 13,096 in total, were in need of renovation and modernization.
[24] Each major UC campus is headed by a chancellor that is appointed by the Regents of the University of California.
Kevin Starr (State Librarian emeritus) and others have argued that this small change is the beginning of a larger reorganization of higher education in California.
The system also provides the education certification, basic training, and some advanced training to all police officers, fire fighters and Emergency Medical Tech's in the state either directly (via on campus academies) or indirectly (via affiliations with police / sheriff department's and fire department's "in house" academies).
The San Francisco Bay area and greater Los Angeles have an abundance of these private universities, with some of the highest densities of post-secondary institutions in the world.
