New enrollment numbers show that lllinois’ public school system for the first time does not have a white majority, with Latino, black, Asian, and other racial groups combining to eclipse white students across the state’s classrooms.
Whites fell to 49.76 percent of the student body this school year, the new data show. The black student population also has declined, but it still makes up a most 18 percent of the state’s public school students.
The Illinois board of education cautioned that the numbers could change if districts make corrections in the coming months. If they hold, Illinois would be one of a dozen states—and the first in the Midwest—to have a school system in which minority students are in the majority, according to the most recent federal education data.
