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56% of Texas Labor Force will be Non-White
80% of the Public School Enrollment wil be Non-White

A dramatic population transformation in Texas means that non-Anglos will make up 56 percent of the labor force and 80 percent of public school enrollment within the next generation, state demographer Steve Murdock said Saturday. Unless current education and economic trends change, income will actually decline by $6,500 per household 35 years from now, Murdock emphasized during a legislative issues conference sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, or NALEO, and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. Between now and 2040, 96 percent of change in the state's population will be non-Anglo. "The demographic reality for Texas is that our future is tied to non-Anglo populations and particularly the Hispanic population," Murdock said. "And how well they do is how well Texas will do. "The reality is our fates are intertwined and interrelated in Texas, and we should not forget that," the demographer said. But the trend line is not looking good. Texas ranked No. 45 in the country in the percentage of adults with high-school education, according to 2000 census information. Since then, Texas has fallen to No. 50. Murdock also told of a school superintendent who recently told him about one elderly Anglo voter's perspective after a school bond election failed: "'I'm not ready to raise my taxes to educate 'those' people.'" "This is dangerous for Texas," Murdock said. Anglos lost their status as the state's majority population in 2003. [more]