Sunday, May 27, 2012

Keep an Eye on Jindal’s Reforms « Diane Ravitch's blog

Keep an Eye on Jindal’s Reforms « Diane Ravitch's blog:


Keep an Eye on Jindal’s Reforms

I just came across an interesting statistic about Louisiana that puts the Jindal education reform plan into context.*
The majority of white children in Louisiana do not go to public school. The majority of white children go to private schools.
Black children are the majority in the public schools of Louisiana.
According to Census data, 17% of Louisiana children enrolled in grades K-12 attended a private school in 2007. By comparison, 11% of U.S. children enrolled in grades K-12 attended a private school in 2007.1
Enrollment in nonpublic schools varies widely among Louisiana’s parishes, from zero children in 14 parishes to over 22,000 children in Jefferson Parish.
White children are a majority of school-age children (55%) in the state, but are 82% of the private school