According to the latest Census Bureau figures, the number of Hispanics surpassed the 50 million mark, growing 43% and accounting for mare than half the national growth since 2000. Hispanics now make up 16% of the country’s 308.7 million people. The Hispanic population growth was faster than blacks and whites in the South. Hispanics doubled in South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Rural counties in the United States continued their decline. In more than one third of the rural counties, more people died than were born. Asians were the fastest growing race, growing by 43% since the year 2000. Minorities now make up 36% of the population.
African-Americans are abandoning cities like Detroit, Chicago and New York and migrating to the suburbs. They also joined the migration to the West and the South moving to places like Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.
Ten states now have more minority children than Non-Hispanic Whites. The minority-majority states are Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California, New Mexico and Hawaii.
What are the implications for education? First, minority children generally have more difficulty in dealing with school so that schools will need to increase the size of their remediation services. There will be a need for greater ESL and ELL classes and teachers. Funding formulas will need to be adjusted in order to provide for these additional school needs.