Emerald Coast Times

There were 20,069 white students enrolled in Okaloosa County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 3.8% decrease from the 20,868 white students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Okaloosa County welcomed a total of 32,426 students at the time. Among them, white students comprised 61.9% of the student body to be the most represented ethnicity in the county. They were followed by Hispanic students with a count of 4,931 (15.2%), and Black students, totaling 3,426, or 10.6% of the student population.

Gov. DeSantis has approved an education budget of over $28 billion for the 2024-25 school year. The new budget includes more than $1 billion earmarked exclusively for teacher salaries to better address the teacher shortage the state faces.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), Florida ranks 50th in the U.S. in terms of teacher salaries, only ahead of West Virginia.

District	No. of white Students	Total District Enrollment	% of Total Enrollment
Okaloosa County School District	20,069	32,426	61.9%