Education plays a Texas-sized role in the fabric of Houston. On the public education side, more than a dozen independent school districts provide elementary and secondary education facilities for Houston's children. The largest of these, the Houston Independent School District, is also the largest single employer in the city, with some 29,000 faculty and staff. The HISD has some 210,000 students in 200 elementary, 57 middle and 48 high schools, and is the the largest school district in Texas and seventh largest in the U.S. Additionally, Houston has more than 300 private schools.

However, the internationally-acclaimed Texas Medical Center is the jewel in Houston's educational crown. It is the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions. More than 42 member institutions at the Center--all non-profit--include 13 hospitals, two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools and schools of dentistry, public healthy, pharmacy and all other health-related careers. The center includes the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Methodist Hospital and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which is renowned as the world's most productive and highly-regarded academic institution devoted to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. The Center also conducts more heart surgeries than any other medical institution worldwide, and is the site of the first, and still largest, medevac service using planes and helicopters to move the critically ill or injured to healthcare facilities.

The University of Houston has a three-campus system in Houston, with more than 56,000 students, making it the largest urban state system of higher education on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The downtown campus is the third-largest in Texas with some 35,000 students, and is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes. It is also the only doctoral degree granting comprehensive research institution in the eastern half of Texas.

Rice University, a private institution with one of the world's largest financial endowments, also makes its home in Houston. Located on a 300-acre campus just a few miles from downtown, Rice offers studies in the humanities, social science, natural science, engineering, architecture, music and business management, and maintains a variety of research facilities and laboratories. It was recently ranked 17th best university in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report magazine.

Texas Southern University, founded in 1947, is predominantly and historically a educational institution for black or African-American students. It has earned an international reputation for quality of education in such diverse fields as law, pharmacy and health, education, science and technology and public affairs, and is home of the highly-respected Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

South Texas College of Law, grew out of YMCA night school law classes and formally became a college in 1923. In 1966, the school stepped out on it's own, and in 1998 joined as an affiliate of the Texas A&M University system. It is Houston's oldest law school and has some 1,250 students and 55 full-time faculty members.

Other institutions of higher learning include The University of St. Thomas, Houston Baptist University San Jacinto College and the Houston Community College System. And many of Houston's suburbs also maintain their own community college systems.