Education Brigham Young University in Provo. The first school in Utah was a shop founded by the Mormons in a settlement in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The emphasis on education by the Mormons made some 200 schools were created in just two decades in the region that later would be Utah. These schools, despite being founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, only provide education to children whose families had the option of paying for education. It was only in 1866 when he founded the first public school in the state. All elementary schools became public by a government decree of the Utah Territory in 1877. In 1884, a constitutional convention created a public high school system in the territory, although such schools were not a mandatory requirement for school districts in Utah until 1911.Currently Utah has one of the highest rates of high school graduates in the country. All educational institutions of the state need to follow rules and instructions issued by the State Board of Education in Utah. This Council directly controls the public school system in the state, which is divided into different school districts. The council consists of 15 members elected by the population and 2 members elected by a Board of Regents. Each second-class city, several major cities of the third class, and each county is served by a school district. In cities, the responsibility of managing the schools is the local school district, while in less densely populated areas, this responsibility lies with the school districts that operate throughout the county in general. Utah allows the operation of so-called “charter schools”-independent public schools, which are administered by school districts, but public budgets that depend for their operation.The school attendance is compulsory for all children and adolescents with more than six years, until the completion of high school or until age seventeen. In 1999, the state’s public schools serve nearly 480,300 students, employing approximately to 21.800 teachers. Private schools serve nearly 12,600 students, employing approximately 1,100 faculty. The public school system of the state consumed about 2.026 million dollars and the spending of public schools was approximately 4,500 thousand dollars per student. About 89.4 of the state’s population over age 25 have a high school diploma. The first library in Utah was created during the 1850s. In 1897, a state law gave funds for the establishment of public libraries, the first being opened next year in Salt Lake City. The state currently has 70 public library systems that move an annual average of 11 books per capita.All cities with over a thousand people have at least one public library. Utah is a great center of higher education. The state has one of the highest rates of people studying in colleges in the country relating to the state’s population. The Board of Regents, composed of 16 members, plus 2 non-voting members who are representatives of the Utah Board of Education administers the system of public colleges and universities in the state. The first higher education institution founded in Utah was the University of Utah, founded in 1850, in Salt Lake City. Utah currently has 25 institutions of higher education, of which 10 are public and 15 are private. It highlights, in addition to the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, located in Provo, and is one of the largest private universities in the United States, Utah State University and Southern Utah University.