Education

Arizona's superintendent of public instruction is chief of the state department of public instruction. The superintendent is also a member of the state board of education with the governor and six officials appointed by the governor. The first compulsory attendance law was enacted in 1899. The present law requires attendance from age 6 to 16.

As early as 1692, Indians of the area were being taught farming by Jesuit missionaries. Under a 1958 state plan for Indian education, federal and state funds support public schools attended by Indian children. Phoenix Indian School is one of the largest boarding schools in the nation. A Hopi reservation school is at Keams Canyon.

The University of Arizona, a land-grant school at Tucson, was established in 1885 and opened in 1891. It has colleges of agriculture, architecture, business and public administration, education, engineering and mines, law, fine arts, humanities, social and behavorial science, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and graduate studies.

Arizona State University (established 1885, opened 1886), with campuses at Tempe and Phoenix, and Northern Arizona University (1899), at Flagstaff, were both founded as teachers colleges. Their programs have been expanded to include such fields as liberal arts, engineering, and business.