A New Majority: Low Income Students in the South's Public Schools

An important report has been released by the Southern Education Foundation. Click the title link to go to the full report (it's in PDF format). Here is the press release:

The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) has released a research report on the growth of low income children in the South’s public schools. The report finds that public schools in the region have enrolled a majority of low income students in each of the last three years (2004-2006) and today the South is the only region in the nation where low income students are 50 percent or more of public school enrollment.

The report also provides some historical background on the presence of low income students in Southern states; reviews trends during the last 50 years; documents patterns of growth in the South and other non-South regions and states during the last two decades; and identifies the primary factors and implications behind the trends.