ATLANTA — The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report.
The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change.
Notice the difference between the regional focus of the article in Part I and Part II. In part one the focus was upon the influx of young people into the South and away from the Northeast. It did not contain an indictment of the Northeast and how it must CHANGE in order to retain its young.
In Part II, however, the Southern states "must CHANGE" if it is to attract quality jobs that require an educated work for. Abundant references to past slavery and racism are made against the South. Little is mentioned about how the area is experiencing net growth.
Despite the critical inspection I do agree that the educational environment in the region needs to improve. The South has too many islands where quality education and opportunities exist while a barren refuse exists in areas immediately surrounding it.
The South, desperate for a well-educated work force that can attract economic development, will face an enormous challenge in tackling on such a broad scale the lower achievement rates among poor and minority students, who score lower than average on tests and drop out more frequently than whites. Four of the 15 states in the report — Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — now have a majority of both low-income and minority pupils. Only one, Virginia, has neither.
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