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Overview of education in Puerto Rico

Education in Puerto Rico is overseen by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Education Council. The Department oversees all elementary and secondary public education while the Council oversees all academic standards and issues licenses to educational institutions wishing to operate or establish themselves in Puerto Rico. Instruction in Puerto Rico is compulsory between the ages of five and 18, which comprises the elementary and high school grades. Students may attend either public or private schools. As of 2013, the island had 1,460 public schools and 764 private schools; there were 606,515 K–12 students, 64,335 vocational students, and 250,011 university students. In 2021, the average public school size was 355 students. Because of damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, a shrinking population, deteriorating infrastructure, and the Puerto Rican government debt crisis, 283 schools were closed in Puerto Rico by 2018. The literacy rate of the Puerto Rican population is 93%; when divided by gender, this is distributed as 92.8% for males and 93.8% for females. According to the 2000 Census, 60.0% of the population attained a high school degree or higher level of education, and 18.3% has a bachelor's degree or higher.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico grants the right to an education to every citizen on the island. To this end, public schools in Puerto Rico provide free and secular education at the elementary and secondary levels. The public school system is funded by the commonwealth and is operated by the Puerto Rico Department of Education (Departamento de Educación del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico) Inicio. The department employs over 45 thousand teachers of which 32,000 have full time tenureships and are organized under several independent unions, including the Puerto Rico Teachers Association and the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico. The remaining teachers are either temporary or contracted on a yearly basis. Preschool education, care, and services (including Early Head Start and Head Start) are free for low income families with private daycares being common and within walking distance in urban areas. Primary and secondary education is compulsory and free regardless of income through more than 1,400 public schools. Ten public schools are considered prestigious locally. All of them being magnet schools, which graduate the highest scores on the island of the College Board's PEAU (Latin America's equivalent of the SAT). Two examples of these are CIMATEC and CROEM which focus on science, technology, and mathematics. Public schools in Puerto Rico are subject to the federal laws of the United States. The NCLB, No Child Left Behind Act included Puerto Rico until president Obama approved a waiver on October 22, 2013. Education Department spokeswoman Yolanda Rosaly told The Associated Press on May 5, 2017 that approximately 27,000 students will be moved, as a result of 184 public school planned closings. The economic crisis in Puerto Rico drove the decision to close the schools, which officials have said will save millions of dollars. Governor Ricardo Rosselló proposed a radical education reform bill in February 2018. The reform bill hopes to give Puerto Rico's public school teachers the first raise in over ten years; an idea that some find skeptical. He signed the legislation in March to incorporate a charter school voucher system after more than 600 amendments were made during debate. Hurricane Maria caused an exodus of more than 25,000 students; the single centralized school district is projected to lose 54,000 students by 2021. The voucher system is going to limit private schools to 3 percent of the student population; whereas the charter schools will receive 10 percent.

Unlike most schools in the United States, public school instruction in Puerto Rico is conducted entirely in Spanish. English is taught as a second language and is a compulsory subject at all levels. In the early years following the 1898 American occupation of the island, the opposite was true: public schooling was entirely conducted in English, and Spanish was treated as a special subject as sanctioned by the US from 1903 to 1917 for grades 1 through 4; only by 1934 were grades five through eight also being taught in Spanish. Upon the appointment of Blanton Winship to be governor of Puerto Rico, English was reinstated as the educational language until 1941; again, only utilizing English in primary schools. Luis Muñoz Marín, the first popularly elected governor in 1948 appointed Mariano Villaronga Toro, Commissioner of Education on the island, and with him, an immediate switch back to using Spanish for instruction. By the 1970s, bilingual programs were introduced to 113 of the schools in Puerto Rico. In 2012, pro statehood Governor Luis Fortuño caused controversy when he proposed that all courses in Puerto Rico public schools be taught in English instead of Spanish as they currently are.

Academic disciplines such as ethnomusicology, folklore, and cultural studies have helped legitimize scholarship on vernacular culture. For example. Afro Puerto Rican bomba has been included.

Private schools in Puerto Rico are operated by non governmental institutions. While accredited elementary and secondary private schools in Puerto Rico must meet minimum public education requirements for academic work, accreditation is optional. There aren't any current policies regarding nursing/health, technology, professional development, or reimbursement when performing state/local functions. There are more than 700 private schools on the island and over 8,000 teachers, most of them Catholic. 8.90% of people in Puerto Rico earn an associate degree and 6.30% of people get graduate or professional degrees.

A study showed that about 19.10% of all students do not finish 9th grade.

The government announced the closure of 283 schools and a new pilot plan for charter schools and vouchers. From 2010 to 2018 a total of 682 schools where closed of which only 17 where sold afterward. The school system has lost about 38,762 students since May 2017 due to closing of schools. In addition, between August 2017 and January 2018 another 27,000 students will be out of the school systems. Teachers have also lost their jobs. Based on United Federation of Teachers, it mentioned more than 2,600 teachers have received a letter saying they were excessed. Also, no teacher has received a raise since 2008 and beginning teachers earn $1,750 a month, although the cost of living is 10 percent higher than on the US mainland.

A January 2014 news report stated that 55 percent of parents with children in public schools picked up their children's grades for the first semester of 2013–2014 school year on the scheduled day.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, 95% of public school students in Puerto Rico graduate at a sub basic level while 60% do not even graduate. Furthermore, according to the Department of Education of Puerto Rico in 2012, 39% of public school students perform at a basic level (average performance) in Spanish in the Puerto Rican Tests of Academic Achievement. Likewise, 36% perform at a basic level in Mathematics while 35% perform at a basic level in English and 43% at a basic level in Science in said tests. – being basic defined as "partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work" according to NAEP. In particular the findings showed that:
Overall, fourth and eighth grade students in Puerto Rico scored lower, on average, than public school students in the continental United States. In 2013, the Nation's Report Card concluded that Puerto Rico falls below basic levels when compared to the United States. In particular the findings showed that:
Overall, fourth and eighth grade students in Puerto Rico scored lower, on average, than public school students in the United States. 11% of students in Puerto Rico scored at or above basic in fourth grade in comparison to the continental United States, where 89% of students scored at or above basic in mathematics. 5% of students in Puerto Rico scored at or above basic in eighth grade in comparison to the United States where 95% of students in the United States scored at or above basic in Mathematics. Also, the Nation's Report Card reported an average of 309 students per school in P. R., where in United States there are 504 students per school. In 2017, Puerto Rico again ranked dead last in fourth grade and eighth grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

Puerto Rico is atypical as many youngsters pursue post secondary studies even though the local market has no demand for them. For example, in 2012 50,000 students graduated at the undergraduate and graduate level while the labor market generated about 6,000 jobs per year of which 25% of those required that level of education. This effectively means that the Puerto Rican market has no demand for 97% of those who graduate with an undergraduate or graduate degree in Puerto Rico, although many find jobs out of the island.