from The Texas Tribune, by Ross Ramsey, 7/13/15 –

Photo by Jennifer Whitney
A reading assistant reads on the classroom floor with a small group of fourth graders at Wanke Elementary School in San Antonio on March 9, 2012.

Texas has more kids in public school than 28 states have residents.

The student population here — 5.1 million — is in the same ballpark as the total population of Colorado.

And you can see the state’s near future in the latest numbers from the Texas Education Agency: 51.8 percent Hispanic, 29.4 percent Anglo, 12.7 percent African-American, 3.7 percent Asian.

That syncs up with recent numbers from the Office of the State Demographer, which says Hispanics will outnumber Anglos by 2020 — that’s five years from now — and will account for more than half of the state’s population by 2042.