evidence: The kids who live in the Chamizal community represent some of the tens of thousands of young Latino people in the United States who already are will soon be the second-largest group of students in the nation’s public schools, behind white students. Latinos will comprise nearly 30% of the school population by the end of the decade and white students will make up 43%, data from the Education Department shows. The number of Hispanic students in public schools in every state grew by varying degrees from 2010 to 2021 even as some states faced overall enrollment declines, a USA TODAY analysis of census data found. A rising birth rate among the nation’s Hispanic population, rather than immigration, is the main driver of the increase, the Pew Research Center found. [...] The growing number of Hispanic or Latino students in public schools means their success is crucial to that of the whole country. Yet schools in places facing booms in Hispanic or Latino student enrollment have a long way to go in accommodating the needs of those students: Hispanic or Latino students saw greater declines than their non-Hispanic or Latino white peers on recent standardized tests. [...] Expanding the Latino teaching workforce could help with another need advocates identify: more bilingual education that allows kids to learn in Spanish and English and more readily available Spanish translation of school-related materials. Federal data shows Spanish was the home language of more than 75%, or 3.9 million, of all English-language learners in public schools and 7.9% of all students in fall 2019.