Education

The state school superintendent, elected for a four-year term, supervises the state department of education. The superintendent is also the executive officer of the state board of education, whose members are appointed by the governor. School attendance is compulsory from age 7 to 16.

Throughout most of the colonial period permanent schools did not exist and education was directed by private teachers. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, set up by the trustees of the Georgia colony, established a permanent school in 1735 near Savannah. In 1783 the General Assembly provided for three academies to be built with state funds. “Old Field” schools, neighborhood projects managed and supported by parents, were common in the 1800's. The Freedmen's Bureau and missionary societies established many schools for blacks in 1868. These later were included in the state public school system.

Chartered in 1785 and opened in 1801, the University of Georgia at Athens was the first state-controlled university founded in the nation (1785) and the second to begin classes (1801). It is a coeducational, land-grant institution, and is the largest institution of higher learning in the state. Among its divisions are colleges of agriculture, arts and sciences, business, and education; schools of environmental design, forest resources, family and consumer science, journalism and mass communication, law, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, and social work; and a graduate school.