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- Back to school!
While 62% of the total US population was classified as non-Hispanic white in 2013, when public schools start this fall their racial landscape will reflect a different America.
According to a new report by the National Center for Education (NCES), minorities—Hispanics, Asians, African American, Native Americans, and multiracial individuals—will account for 50.3% of public school students. To break this down by grade levels, minorities will make up 51% of pre-kindergarteners to 8th graders and 48% of 9th to 12th graders.
Note that these are projections; actual data won't be out for a few years.
The Pew Research Center, which offers a lovely chart, also points out something rather important:
The composition of the private school student population is markedly different. In 2009, about seven-in-ten (73%) of the estimated 4.7 million children enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12 in private schools were white.