West Florida News

There were 514 Black students enrolled in DeSoto County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 1.7% decrease from the 523 Black students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that DeSoto County welcomed a total of 4,286 students at the time. Among them, Black students comprised 12% of the student body to be the third most represented ethnicity in the county. The most represented ethnicity was Hispanic, accounting for 52.4% of the students (2,244), followed by white students who made up 31.9% of the student population (1,366).

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 Black Students	Total District Enrollment	% of Total Enrollment
School District of DeSoto County	514	4,286	12%