Panama City Reporter

There were 76 Alaska Native students enrolled in Bay County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 10.6% decrease from the 85 Alaska Native students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Bay County welcomed a total of 27,675 students at the time. Among them, Alaska Native students comprised 0.3% of the student body to be the least represented ethnicity in the county. The most represented ethnicity was white, accounting for 61.6% of the students (17,050), followed by Black students who made up 14.6% of the student population (4,027).

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 Alaska Native Students	Total District Enrollment	% of Total Enrollment
Bay District Schools	76	27,675	0.3%