Mexicanization continues apace, as shown by numbers from the Census.

Roughly one-fourth of the nation's kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.

Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics' growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

The ethnic shifts in school enrollment are most evident in the West. States such as Arizona, California and Nevada are seeing an influx of Hispanics due to immigration and higher birth rates.

Minority students in that region exceed non-Hispanic whites at the pre-college grade levels, with about 37 percent of the students Hispanic. Hispanics make up 54 percent of the students in New Mexico, 47 percent in California, 44 percent in Texas and 40 percent in Arizona.

In 2007, more than 40 percent of all students in K-12 were minorities – Hispanics, blacks, Asian-Americans and others. That's double the percentage of three decades ago. [Hispanic enrollment in schools, colleges rising, By Hope Yen, AP,March 6, 2009]

Also of interest from the Census is its annual Facts for Features: Cinco de Mayo. It's a list of statistics to make the job of journalists even easier when they write the requisite yearly puff piece on the Mexican holiday coming up in May.

Here are a couple of stats from the Cinco de Mayo blurb...

29.2 million

Number of U.S. residents of Mexican origin in 2007. These residents constituted 10 percent of the nation’s total population and 64 percent of the Hispanic population

18.25 million

Number of people of Mexican origin who lived either in California (10.97 million) or Texas (7.28 million). People of Mexican origin made up more than one-quarter of the residents of these two states.

As I wrote in U.S. Census Bureau Presents Diversity Propaganda As Impartial Information, the agency has lost track of its mission of the collection and presentation of demographic facts. If there is an unpleasant fact about an ethnic group, it is often disguised by appearing with no comparison information with other groups. One example is this item about more Hispanics going to college.

Hispanics Become More Prevalent on College Campuses

Hispanic students comprised 12 percent of full-time college students (both undergraduate and graduate students) in 2007, up from 10 percent in 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau tables released today. Hispanics comprise 15 percent of the nation's total population.

That's nice that more Hispanics are going to college, but Inquiring Minds Want To Know how many graduate. The Census doesn't go there. (However, 2006 government figures noted that 57 percent of white students get their degree versus 44 percent of Hispanics.)