Education

Oklahoma's superintendent of public instruction, an elected official, is chief of the state department of education and serves for a term of four years. There is a county superintendent for each county.

A compulsory attendance law was enacted in 1907. The present law requires children from ages 7 to 16 to attend school.

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education consists of nine citizens appointed by the governor for nine-year terms to coordinate the administration of the state's public junior colleges, colleges, and universities.

The first school in what is now Oklahoma was Wheelock Academy, an Indian school opened by Presbyterian missionaries in 1832.

The University of Oklahoma at Norman was established when Oklahoma became a territory in 1890. Its Health Sciences Center is in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma State University, a land-grant college, was founded in 1890. The main campus is in Still-water. Branches are the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Tulsa; Oklahoma State University Technical Branch, Okmulgee; and Oklahoma State University Technical Branch, Oklahoma City.