Education

Colleges and universities

San Jose is home to several colleges and universities. The largest is San Jose State University, which was founded by the California legislature in 1862 as the California State Normal School, and is the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) system. Located in downtown San Jose since 1870, the university enrolls approximately 30,000 students in over 130 different bachelor's and master's degree programs. The school enjoys a good academic reputation, especially in the fields of engineering, business, art and design, and journalism, and consistently ranks among the top public universities in the western region of the United States. San Jose State is one of only three Bay Area schools that fields a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Division I college football team; Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley are the other two.

National Hispanic University, with an enrollment of 600, offers associate and bachelor's degrees and teaching credentials to its students, focusing on Hispanic students.

California University of Management and Technology (CALMAT) offers many degree programs, including MBA, Computer Science, Information Technology. Most classes are offered both online and in the downtown campus. Many of the students are working professionals in the Silicon Valley.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose and University of Silicon Valley Law School offer law degrees, catering to working professionals.

National University maintains a campus in San Jose.

The San Jose campus of Golden Gate University offers business bachelor and MBA degrees.

San Jose's community colleges, San Jose City College, West Valley College, Mission College and Evergreen Valley College, offer associate degrees, general education units to transfer to CSU and UC schools, and adult and continuing education programs. The West campus of Palmer College of Chiropractic is also located in San Jose.

WestMed College is headquartered in San Jose and offers paramedic training, emergency medical technician training, and licensed vocational nursing programs.

The University of California, Santa Cruz operates Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton.

Additionally, San Jose residents attend several other area universities, including Santa Clara University, Stanford University in Palo Alto, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in Mountain View and the University of California, Berkeley. San Jose and South Bay residents also comprise large proportions of the student bodies at major California public universities, including UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Riverside.

Primary and secondary education

Up until the opening of Lincoln High School in 1943, San Jose students only attended San Jose High School. Some of the city's history is embedded within these two high schools, which hold a Thanksgiving Day high school football game, called the "Big Bone." As of 2010, there are 127 elementary, 47 middle, and 44 high schools, of which are all public. Public education in the city is provided by four high school districts, fourteen elementary districts, and four unified school districts (which provide both elementary and high schools).

In addition to the main San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD), other nearby unified school districts of nearby cities are Milpitas Unified School District, Morgan Hill Unified School District, and Santa Clara Unified School District.

Districts using the "feeder" system:

Campbell Union High School District receives students from: Cambrian Campbell Union Luther Burbank Moreland Union School District. East Side Union High School District receives students from: Alum Rock Union Berryessa Union Evergreen Elementary Franklin-McKinley Mount Pleasant Elementary Oak Grove Orchard Elementary Fremont Union High School District receives students from: Cupertino Union School District. Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District receives students from Los Gatos Union School District. Stratford Middle School Saratoga Union School District Annexation issue

Prior to 1954, California law required cities and school districts to have the same boundaries. When San Jose began expanding, rural school districts became one of the major opponents, as their territory and tax base was taken by the city. The city's legislators pushed a bill through the California Legislature, removing that requirement, and ending much of the opposition. The result is a patchwork of local school districts in the areas annexed after 1954.

Private education Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

Private schools in San Jose are primarily run by religious groups. The Catholic Diocese of San Jose has the second largest student population in the Santa Clara County, behind only SJUSD; the diocese and its parishes operate several schools in the city, including six high schools: Archbishop Mitty High School, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Notre Dame High School, Saint Francis High School, St. Lawrence High School, and Presentation High School. Other private high schools not run by the Diocese include two Baptist high schools, Liberty Baptist School and White Road Baptist Academy, one Non-Denominational Protestant high school, Valley Christian High School (San Jose, California), one University-preparatory school, Cambrian Academy, and a nonsectarian K-12 Harker School west of the city in the Blackford neighborhood.

San Jose library system

The San Jose Public Library system is unique in that the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library combines the collections of the city's system with the San Jose State University main library. In 2003, construction of the library, which now holds more than 1.6 million items, was the largest single library construction project west of the Mississippi, with eight floors that result in more than 475,000 square feet (44,100 m2) of space with a capacity for 2 million volumes.

The city has 21 neighborhood branches (17 of them open and not currently undergoing renovation or reconstruction) including the Biblioteca Latinoamericana which specializes in Spanish language works. The East San Jose Carnegie Branch Library, a Carnegie library opened in 1908, is the last Carnegie library in Santa Clara County still operating as a public library and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. As the result of a bond measure passed in November 2000, a number of brand new or completely reconstructed branches have been completed and opened. The four branches currently undergoing construction are the Calabazas Branch, the Educational Park Branch, the Seventrees Branch, and the Bascom Branch and Community Center. The yet-to-be-named brand new Southeast Branch is also planned, bringing the bond library project to its completion.

The San Jose system (along with the University system) were jointly named as "Library of the Year" by the Library Journal in 2004.