The city of Cape Coral is a member of the Lee County School District that is operated by the Lee County Board of Education. Cape has continuously expanding public and private school systems with established high performance standards. Starting with 2009, this Board of Education operated eight elementary, six middle and four high schools in the city.

The four public schools in the city are: Cape Coral High School that was built during the late 70s; Mariner High School that was inaugurated in 1987; Ida S. Baker High School that was founded in 2004 and the Island Coast High School, the newest of all four, opened for the 2008-2009 school year.

The city has also created a municipal charter school system that consists of two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. These charter schools use the Cambridge and Core Knowledge Curricula. Due to the reason that the system is entirely public, there is no tuition to be paid. These schools are available only for the children that reside in Cape.

The Edison State College main campus is situated right near south of Cape Coral, in Front Myers. The college offers associate and bachelor’s degrees as well as technical training in fields like Business Administration, Computer Networking & Programming, Allied Health Programs, Criminal Justice and others as well. For the 2009 enrollment, there were more than 16,000 students on four campuses.

One of the newest state universities in all Florida is the FGCU – Florida Gulf Coast University that opened its doors in 1997 and is located in the nearby vicinity of Fort Myers and at the moment serves more than 12,000 students. This university has established a Cape Coral satellite facility that provides Cape students with a continuously growing offering of core courses. The FGCU offers undergraduate, graduate as well as doctoral degrees, including here an Executive Master’s program, Biotechnology programs and a College of Business.

Moving on to culture and recreation, the city of Cape Coral is the home of a fishing pier and a sandy beach on the Caloosahatchee River at the public Yacht Basin & Club. Here you can find the SunSplash Water Park where there are more than 30 recreational parks and seven golf courses. The city also offers a bundle of Gulf beaches, like Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island. This region is known by birding fans for the rich variety of wildfire and the biggest population of burrowing owls in all Florida.

The city’s most important cultural assets consist of: Art Studio, Historical Museum, Cape Coral Art League and the Cultural Park Theater which is a 187-seat performing arts facility that serves as a home to the community actors. Cape has also other regional arts and performance venues in the nearby vicinity, like the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.

Observation of the local wildfire is possible through the several ecological preserves and parks. In February 1992, Mike Greenwell was the founder of an amusement park named “Mike Greenwell’s Bat-A-Ball & Family Fun Park.

The city’s most important events are the annual Independence Day fireworks festival that is known as the Red, White & Boom. Starting with 1985, Cape Coral is the home of an annual Oktoberfest, organized by the German-American Club, styled after the original event that is organized in Germany.