Gwinnett offers a high quality of life through educational choices from Pre-K to PhD, housing ranging from single-family subdivisions and downtown condos to large-tract estates, entertainment that includes five professional sports teams, and a strong local economy with 25,000 businesses, including more than 650 foreign-owned companies, providing jobs close to home. Community pride is evident in homes, churches, schools, cultural institutions, parks, and libraries. To support rapid growth in the 1970s and afterward, Gwinnett built major water and sewer systems, followed by extensive road construction, transit service, a parks and recreation system, libraries, and countywide public safety improvements, many funded by the voter-approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. Education has long been a top priority in the county, where pioneers sought to strengthen their communities and create better futures for their families, and the earliest dirt-floor schools grew into today's nationally recognized public school system, the largest in Georgia.