Okaloosa leaders warn family empowerment scholarships have cut district enrollment and could force budget adjustments

Superintendent Dr. White told the Okaloosa County School Board on Sept. 9, 2025, that the district’s enrollment is down substantially and that family empowerment scholarships are a significant factor. “When you look at our warm body count, last year, this year, we’re about 654 students down,” Dr. White said. He and staff cautioned that those lower counts reduce FTE-based state funding and will require the district to use contingency dollars and consider program and staffing allocations.

The superintendent and senior staff described why the change matters. The district uses full‑time‑equivalent (FTE) counts to compute state funding; preliminary forecasting in the meeting estimated the district could end the year about 233 FTE below the district’s budget projections, which Dr. White said “looks like about roughly $1,600,000.” That shortfall is not a single directive to eliminate personnel but will affect allocations and hiring decisions for the…