There are three public universities located within the city limits: California State University, Los Angeles California State University Northridge and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Private colleges in the city include the American Film Institute Conservatory Alliant International University, American InterContinental University, American Jewish University, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy – Los Angeles campus, Antioch University's Los Angeles campus, Art Center College of Design (Art Center), Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Los Angeles campus (FIDM), Los Angeles Film School Loyola Marymount University (LMU is also the parent university of Loyola Law School located in Los Angeles), Mount St. Mary's College, National University of California, New York Film Academy in Universal City Occidental College ("Oxy"), Otis College of Art and Design (Otis), Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Southwestern Law School, and University of Southern California (USC).

The community college system consists of nine campuses governed by the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District: East Los Angeles College (ELAC), Los Angeles City College (LACC), Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Mission College, Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles Valley College Los Angeles Southwest CollegeLos Angeles Trade-Technical College and West Los Angeles College.

Los Angeles Unified School District serves almost all of the city of Los Angeles, as well as several surrounding communities, with a student population around 800,000. After Proposition 13 was approved in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding. LAUSD has become known for its underfunded, overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses, although its 162 Magnet schools help compete with local private schools.Several small sections of Los Angeles are in the Las Virgenes Unified School District. Los Angeles County Office of Education operates the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. The Los Angeles Public Library system operates 72 public libraries in the city. Enclaves of unincorporated areas are served by the County of Los Angeles Public Library, many are within walking distance to City of Los Angeles residents.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California. It is the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. During the 2007-2008 school year, LAUSD served 694,288 students, and had 45,473 teachers and 38,494 other employees.it is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County, after the county government.The total school district budget for 2009-2010 is $7.3 billion. In enrollment breakdown by ethnic group, 73% of its students were of Hispanic origin and 11% of its students were African American. White American students comprise 9% of the student population, while Asian American students comprise 4%; students of Filipino origin form 2% of the student population. Native Americans and Pacific Islanders together are less than 1%.

The school district consists of Los Angeles and all or portions of several adjoining Southern California cities. LAUSD has its own police force, the Los Angeles School Police Department, which was established in 1948 to provide police services for LAUSD schools.The LAUSD enrolls a third of the preschoolers in Los Angeles County, and operates almost as many buses as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.The LAUSD school construction program rivals the Big Dig in terms of expenditures, and LAUSD cafeterias serve about 500,000 meals a day, rivaling the output of local McDonald's restaurants.

The LAUSD has a reputation for extremely crowded schools with large class sizes, high drop-out and expulsion rates, low academic performance in many schools, poor maintenance and incompetent administration. in 2007, LAUSD's dropout rate was 26 percent for grades 9 through 12. Bond issues and ambitious renovation programs have not uniformly eased these conditions .As part of its school-construction project, LAUSD opened two high schools Santee Education Complex and South East in 2005 and four high schools Arleta, Contreras Learning Complex, Panorama, and East Valley in 2006.