The 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in June to strike
down school desegregation plans in Seattle and Louisville has
focused public attention on the degree of racial and ethnic
integration in the nation's 93,845 public schools. A new
analysis of public school enrollment data by the Pew Hispanic
Center finds that in the dozen years from 1993–94 to 2005–06,
white students became less isolated from minority students
while, at the same time, black and Hispanic students became
slightly more isolated from white students. These two seemingly
contradictory trends stem mainly from the same powerful
demographic shift that took place during this period: an
increase of more than 55% in the Hispanic slice of the public
school population. Latinos in 2005-06 accounted for 19.8% of all
public school students, up from 12.7% in 1993-94.1 During this
same period, the black share of public school enrollment rose
slightly—to 17.2%, from 16.5%—while the white share fell
sharply, to 57.1% from 66.1%. Read the full article A C