Because of the political reforms demanded by his political philosophy, Jefferson was always focused on instantiating a "system" of education to edify all persons according to their needs and to prevent those governing at every level from lusting after power and fame instead of governing in pursuance of the interests of the general citizenry. That notion of a system of education--offering a basic education for all citizens and high-level education and access to it for the intellectually and morally elite--at the time would have been unique to Virginia and it showed the extent to which Jefferson recognized both the political ills of his day and that those political ills could only be remedied through educational reform. This paper is a critical analysis of that system of education, from ward schools to the University of Virginia.