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Everything is bigger in Texas, including the . No state has experienced more growth in the number of K-12 students over the last decade than Texas. Although the majority of the growth is among the Hispanic student population, all ethnic groups except Caucasians experienced both numerical and percentage increases in enrollment during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. These increases in minority enrollment and decreases in white enrollment continue a trend that dates back to the 1980s.

Enrollment Reflects Increasing Diversity

According to the Texas Education Agency, over the last decade, the state’s public school system has added over 820,000 students, which reflects a 19 percent increase in total enrollment. When viewed longitudinally, enrollment growth in Texas is even more pronounced: Since the 1987-1988 school year, enrollment has increased by a whopping 1.85 million students, representing a growth of over 57 percent.

In the 2012-2013 academic year, Texas public school students were:

• 51.3 percent Hispanic;
• 30 percent white;
• 12.7 percent African-American;
• 3.6 percent Asian, and
• 1.8 percent multi-racial.

These numbers are representative of the increasing ethnic and cultural diversity of students enrolling in Texas public schools. The Hispanic student population surpassed the 50 percent mark in 2011 and is the fastest-growing segment of Texas’ student population. Conversely, white enrollment, which has been decreasing for years, is projected to continue declining for the next several decades. In 2000, over 41 percent of Texas students were white, but that number now stands at just over 31 percent. By 2050, experts

On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Yet, 60 years later, public schools across the nation continue to be highly segregated based on race and socioeconomic status. Curiously, America’s most segregated schools are not in the Deep South but in New York, a state that has expansive ethnic, cultural, social, and economic diversity. Perhaps even more surprising, New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world, also has one of the most segregated school districts in the country.

Segregation by the Numbers

According to a by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, school segregation in New York is widespread. It occurs in metropolitan New York City, rural areas, and urban locales upstate. However, as the nation’s largest public school system with 1.1 million students, the New York City ���������� Schools greatly influenced the depth and breadth of the segregation problem. And a significant problem it is. Although the number of Asian and Latino students has dramatically increased since the late 1980s, exposure of these groups to white students has decreased. In fact, of New York City’s 32 school districts, 19 had less than 10 percent white enrollment as recently as 2010. Some of New York City’s schools, particularly charter and magnet schools, are identified by the authors of the report as being so segregated that they are classified as “apartheid schools.”

Compounding the problem