For the first time ever, public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children, according to The Associated Press.
Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent, but the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority, the AP reported.
About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders, according to the AP. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population.
Private schools nationally are changing as well, seeing a smaller number of white students and a greater number of Hispanic students in their decreasing pool of children, the AP reported.
The new majority-minority status of America's schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole, according to the AP.
The Census Bureau estimates that the country's population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians, the AP reported.
As the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially segregated, reflecting U.S. housing patterns, according to the AP.
The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers, the AP reported. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline. Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes and are less likely to graduate.
