West Florida News

There were 10,940 white students enrolled in Charlotte County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 2.2% decrease from the 11,189 white students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Charlotte County welcomed a total of 16,864 students at the time. Among them, white students comprised 64.9% of the student body to be the most represented ethnicity in the county. They were followed by Hispanic students with a count of 3,130 (18.6%), and Black students, totaling 1,404, or 8.3% 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
Charlotte County School District	10,940	16,864	64.9%