Education - Education & Child Care

San Antonio’s educational heritage is as old as the city itself. A mission-­based educational system was used by the founding Spanish as a necessary first step in colonizing the New World. Their plan called for Spanish missionaries to convert enough native people to establish Spanish Christianity in the region. Thus schools for the native inhabitants were of supreme importance, as education was the means to win the hearts and minds of the indigenous peoples. The friars who were first in charge of these mission schools were Franciscans from the competing colleges of Zacatecas and Queretaro in Mexico.

The first attempt to found a traditional school for San Antonio’s settlers’ sons in 1798 did not succeed, as there was little support for it. The boys it attempted to teach were mainly occupied, as was the town as a whole, with the more basic activities of survival on the frontier. In 1803 a future signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, José Francisco Ruiz, was appointed schoolmaster, but his school did not last long either. Considering the city’s strong Catholic heritage, it is no surprise that the city’s first true educational institution, the Ursuline Academy for girls, was founded in 1851 by seven Ursuline nuns. There the Academy stayed until 1965, when new facilities were constructed on the city’s northwest side. Its former campus, designed by San Antonio architect Francois Giraud, is now the site of the Southwest School of Art (SSA). The buildings, restored by the SSA, are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Modern-­day San Antonio now boasts five fully accredited universities, numerous seminaries, branch locations of several universities, an extensive community college system, 15 public school districts, several private schools and academies, and numerous preschools and child care centers.