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Latino students in the majority in California's public schools
November 15th, 2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Hispanic and Latino students now make up the majority of students in California's public school system, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the very first time. According to data released by the state Department of Education, almost 50.4 percent of the state's students in the 2009-10 school years identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, up 1.36 percent from the previous year.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - in contrast, 27 percent of California's 6.2 million students identified themselves as white, 9 percent as Asian and 7 percent as black. Students calling themselves Filipino, Pacific Islander, Native American or other total almost 7 percent.
Experts say the shift underscores the enormous impact Latinos already have on California's politics, economy and school system. This influence will only grow as Latino parents discover that many of the schools their children attend are underfunded, Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley says. "It turns upside down how we think about California students," he said.
"A lot depends on the extent to which Latino parents come together and organize," Fuller adds. "These are parents who historically have not had much political power. But as they are coming together and feeling their oats, they may organize around education."
It came as no surprise that Latinos make up the new majority in California schools, considering that their numbers have grown substantially in recent decades. In 2009, Latinos made up 37 percent of the state's population, a number that continues to increase.
However -- the electoral sway that California Latino population has not grown by similar amounts. Almost 40 percent of adult Latinos in California remain ineligible to vote, Lisa Garcia Bedolla, an associate professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education says.
The challenge, Bedolla says, is finding ways to get Latino parents involved in schools when they cannot vote for members of their local school board.
"How do we come up with constructive ways to do that, considering the limitations on how these parents can participate? That's the question from here," she said.