Education

San Antonio has a wide range of public and private educational institutes that have served the city in creating a well-educated workforce. With San Antonio’s booming population, school districts, colleges and universities around the area are building new facilities to meet the rising demand for space.

The San Antonio area has 19 public school districts, each meeting the needs of students in different parts of the city. The number of public charter school options in the San Antonio area is growing as well. One example of this is the Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering (BASE), a public charter school located at Brooks City-Base with a curriculum that focuses on science and engineering. Also located at Brooks City-Base is the Challenger Learning Center of San Antonio, a hands-on experience where participants encounter an interactive, computerized simulator with a Mission Control patterned after NASA's Johnson Space Center and an orbiting spacecraft transforming them into astronauts, engineers, doctors and scientists in a 2-hour simulated space mission.

San Antonio is the only city in Texas that is home to both of the state’s flagship university systems, the University of Texas and Texas A&M Universiy. The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), which has more than 26,000 students and is the second largest school in the UT education system, has two campuses in San Antonio and has a significant presence at Brooks City-Base. UTSA offers undergraduate and graduate level degrees in business, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics and doctorate degrees in neurobiology, computer science and physics. Additionally, Brooks City-Base is located a few minutes away from the proposed location for the Texas A&M at San Antonio campus.

One of San Antonio’s most valuable educational institutes is the Alamo Community College District (ACCD), which includes the Northeast Campus, Northwest Vista, Palo Alto, St. Philip's and San Antonio colleges. ACCD offers two-year degree programs and certifications in a variety of fields and stands as one of the largest junior college systems in Texas, serving over 88,700 students in 2003-04.

Other area universities include Trinity University, named U.S. News and World Report’s Best College for master’s programs among western universities, and Our Lady of the Lake University, University of the Incarnate Word and St. Mary's University, three Catholic institutions that offer a wide-range of business, science and technology-based undergraduate and graduate programs.

Also located in the San Antonio is the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). More than 2,700 students a year train in over 50 health-related degree specialties at UTHSCSA in an environment that involves more than 100 affiliated hospitals, clinics and health care facilities in South Texas.

San Antonio is also home to several highly regarded scientific, research and technical institutes, such as: Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Southwest Research Institute and Texas Research Park Foundation.