East Panhandle News

There were 735 Black students enrolled in Suwannee County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 7.4% decrease from the 794 Black students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Suwannee County welcomed a total of 5,968 students at the time. Among them, Black students comprised 12.3% of the student body to be the third most represented ethnicity in the county. The most represented ethnicity was white, accounting for 59.1% of the students (3,527), followed by Hispanic students who made up 22.7% of the student population (1,356).

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
Suwannee County School District	735	5,968	12.3%