White residents account for 58.3 percent of the state's population, according to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau data. But they make up only 47 percent of the student body this school year. The new majority belongs to blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities.
The demographic changes are manifesting themselves in the classroom in unexpected ways and with breathtaking speed. Schools in Charles County, in rural, largely white Southern Maryland, are now majority black. Next door, in Prince George's County, Bladensburg Elementary School has gone from majority black to majority Hispanic in less than seven years.
The state's public schools quietly became majority minority in 2004 as part of a larger demographic shift occurring in the Washington region and the nation. School administrators across the region said they are spending more time and money, inside and outside the classroom, reaching out to their growing populations of minority students, thousands of whom are new to the United States.
