SEF ’s report finds that in 2006 low income students were 54 percent of the 15-state South ’s public school enrollment and 41 percent in the rest of the nation. The South ’s percentage has grown steadily since at least 1989, when low income children were 37 percent of the region ’s students in public schools.

“The South has a crisis of the first order of magnitude, ” declared Lynn Huntley, SEF President. “The region is in the throes of a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle where poverty and low incomes are begetting a lack of education and, in turn, the lack of education is perpetuating and creating poverty and inequality. ”

SEF documents that the South ’s new majority of low income learners lag behind in school achievement and graduation rates while the region provides them the nation ’s least educational support. The South already has the nation ’s largest population of adults lacking a high school or college education.

Eleven of 15 Southern states in 2006 had a majority of low income students: Louisiana (84%), Mississippi (75%), Florida (62%), Texas (56%), Alabama (54%), Arkansas (53%), and Tennessee (53%). Georgia, South Carolina, and West Virginia had 52 percent; Kentucky had 50 percent. North Carolina (49%) and Oklahoma (47%) will probably have a new majority of low income students soon.

SEF defines low income students as children eligible for free and reduced lunch in public schools or in households of three persons with an annual income of $31,765 or less.

SEF identified three primary factors behind the trends: demographic changes (higher rates of population growth among Latino and African American children, who statistically are more likely to be born into a low income household); state economic problems; and the region ’s history of persistent poverty.

“If this new majority of students fails in school, an entire state will fail simply because there will be inadequate human capital to build good jobs, an enjoyable quality of life, and a well-informed democracy, ” said Steve Suitts, SEF program coordinator and the report ’s author.

For more information and to see the full report, visit www.southerneducation.org.