At Some Schools, the Demographic Future Is Now

Prekindergarten pupils at Escobar Elementary School in Pharr.

(USA) Certain characteristics set the Laredo Independent School District Laredo Independent School District apart from most other districts in the state.

Its western boundary aligns directly with the Mexican border. Nearly all its students are poor, and nearly all are Hispanic. Most rely on the school to provide two meals a day. On the first day of school this week, some showed up without shoes, or without parents accompanying them.

“It’s hard to work on teaching them about reading and writing and math when they haven’t eaten. It’s hard to really welcome them into their class with their textbooks and their lockers when they don’t have on shoes,” said A. Marcus Nelson, the Laredo superintendent, who said the district solicited donations of shoes and dress-code-appropriate clothes all summer to prepare for the new school year.

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