Southern States Turn To Southwest To Manage Latino Population

A report out of Georgia illustrates what is sure to be a growing trend as states in the South continue to see growth in their Latino populations. Outside of Atlanta, three members of the DeKalb School Board recently stated their support for a new superintendent: Dr. Robert Durón, currently the superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District.

Now apparently there’s all kinds of internal drama going on with this superintendent search in Georgia, I’m not going to get into the local politics of it, but I think it’s important to note that school board member Nancy Jester wrote:

We ask you to stand with us and support Dr. Duron.  He is a qualified professional that will serve and represent our district well.  He will bring accountability, ethics and innovation to DeKalb.  We cannot wait.  Our children cannot wait.

What I read into that statement is that, because DeKalb County is changing so much — let’s say bilingual education is increasingly becoming necessary for example — the district is looking for ways to effectively manage itself. But, as we’ve written before, the environment in Georgia tends to be hostile or ignorant of Latinos, so to get down to the business of managing a school system that’s different than it’s been historically, the district is eyeing educators from the Southwest, a region that arguably has much more experience with this particular sub-set of the student population.

It’s in the numbers. According to a report, DeKalb County Schools’ ethnic breakdown of a total enrollment or 97,000 is: 4% Asian, 10% white, 72% black and 11% Latino. The Census in 2010 reported that Georgia’s Latino population had grown by 96%. Just two years ago, in DeKalb County, the Latino population was 10%, up 7.9% in 2000.

The low down: Latinos are a growing population segment in DeKalb County. This is going to happen all over the South, as we’ve been seeing in recent news reports, and I’d venture to say schools and other institutions across the South are going to continue to poach talented, educated Latino professionals from the Southwest and other heavily-Latino areas to address that fact.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD