SimCity 142: Education

Education is a very important part of the game for a multitude of reasons. More than any other aspect, education plays a key role in reducing almost all of the major headaches you can experience as a result of city growth. Rolling over the icon in the education HUD will give you the following tips:

• Kids will go to grade school if they can walk or ride the bus there
• Kids will walk, drive, or take public transportation to get to a college or university
• All schools benefit residents through education
• Educated houses consume less power and water
• Educated Sims are less likely to cause fires
• Educated houses create fewer criminals
• Sims in educated buildings get less sick
• Increase school attendance to raise your city's education level
• Benefits from educated Sims improve the higher your city's education level
• Students educated at colleges and universities increase the industrial tech levels of nearby industry

Grade schools and high schools -- assuming they are properly funded and running with a full compliment of school buses -- contribute to the overall education level of your city. This means higher wages and, by proxy, more tax revenue.

Educational buildings also aid when pursuing other specializations -- such as building a television factory. The greater the education level of your populace, the less pollution you will create.

Conservation

One of the least talked about benefits of education is sustainability. Educated citizens will use less water, power, and create less garbage and sewage. Combined, these alleviate a huge financial burden on the city and free up lots of cash that you can then use to grow and expand.

Education is about prevention. Your city will be better off in the long run when you educate your Sims. You will have fewer fires, criminals, and unnecessary demands.

Help from City Hall

Department of Education across the street from city hall.

One of the upgrades in your city hall is a department of education. This module will greatly increase the effectiveness of your grade schools, high schools, universities, and school buses.

Specializing

Education is one of the specializations you can pursue. This would require you to build a large university somewhere in your governance. This university not only boosts local education (greatly) but also aids the other city sites in your region.

Smart Factories

When we think of factories, we think of old, sooty, smog-belching behemoths that generate cash at the expense of public health. However, in a modern society, this need not be the case. Investments in education will naturally retrofit the factories of your city with clean-burning alternatives that generate even more cash.