Pasco Reporter

There were 221 Alaska Native students enrolled in Pasco County's only school district in the 2023-24 school year, a 1.8% increase over the 217 Alaska Native students in the previous school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Data showed that Pasco County welcomed a total of 85,840 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 54.1% of the students (46,405), followed by Hispanic students who made up 26.6% of the student population (22,875).

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
Pasco County School District	221	85,840	0.3%