Northwoods Reporter

There were 1,465 white students enrolled in Rusk County schools in the 2023-24 school year, 0.9% less than the previous year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Data showed that Rusk County schools welcomed 1,605 students during the 2023-24 school year. Among them, white students comprised 91.3% of the student body to be the most represented ethnicity in the county.

Among the nine schools in Rusk County, Ladysmith Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of white students in the 2023-24 school year, with a total of 307 students.

According to the Nation’s Report Card 2022 results, Black fourth-graders in Wisconsin scored an average of 40 points lower than their white colleagues in both math and reading.

Data also showed that Black students were three times as likely to fail the reading test than white pupils in the state. The gap is even larger in mathematics, with Black students failing five times more than white students.

These achievement gaps are also reflected in graduation rates. According to recent US Census data, nearly 95% of white students in the state successfully graduated in 2021.

Meanwhile, graduation rates for Black and multiracial students lagged behind white students by 10%. Even further behind, only 71.6% of Hispanic students completed their high school education during the same period, one of the lowest graduation rates in the state.

School name	% of white students enrollment	Total Enrollment
Bruce Elementary School	91.2%	204
Bruce High School	94.2%	120
Bruce Middle School	92.7%	82
Flambeau Elementary School	97%	197
Flambeau High School	96.6%	147
Flambeau Middle School	96.2%	106
Ladysmith Elementary School	88%	349
Ladysmith High School	86.7%	241
Ladysmith Middle School	87.4%	159