How Many Hispanic Students Are In The Public School System?

How Many Hispanic Students Are in the Public School System?

According to projections from the U.S. Department of Education in 2014, there was a significant breakthrough in the demographics of American public schools. For the first time ever, the majority of students in these schools were no longer white.

Based on population trends, the National Center for Education Statistics predicted that 50.3 percent of students for the 2014-15 school year would be people of color. This was considered a precursor to the overall country becoming majority-minority within the next thirty years. The Office for Civil Rights is expected to release more comprehensive student demographic information for that period in the near future.

This shift in demographics can be attributed, in part, to a decline in the white student population. Over a span of ten years, the percentage of white students decreased from 58.45 percent to an estimated 50.4 percent in 2014. During the same period, the percentage of black students slightly decreased from 16.88 percent to approximately 15.5 percent. There was a small increase in the Asian student population, from 4.53 percent to an estimated 5.2 percent.

However, the main driving force behind this shift is the exponential growth of the Hispanic population. Hispanics comprised 24.8 percent of the student population in 2013-14, a significant increase from 18.94 percent in 2003-04. Every state experienced a rise in the number of Hispanic students, with the exception of Mississippi and Washington, D.C., which saw a decline in white student population.

Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase in the enrollment of Hispanic students in schools. The Hispanic growth rate has slowed down in recent years and has been overtaken by the growth rate of the Asian population. Nevertheless, Hispanics accounted for 51 percent of the overall U.S. population growth from 2016 to 2017, as reported by the Pew Research Center.

This demographic shift is evident nationwide, even in small towns and rural areas, according to a 2015 report by the Urban Institute. Although Florida and Southwest states experienced the most significant increase in Hispanic student enrollment, school districts all over the country are becoming less white and can expect increasing diversity in the coming decades. For example, in the past five years, the number of districts in Minnesota with majority-minority enrollment has doubled. MinnPost reported that almost a quarter of all public school students in Minnesota attend classes in these districts.

To delve further into the subject, it is worth exploring how other student subgroups have undergone shifts over the past decade. This can be compared to the stagnant racial diversity within America’s teaching force.

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