A deep dive by CBS News focuses mostly on one school Erika Donalds, the wife of Rep. Byron Donalds, worked to start up, in Fort Myers, Florida. “After enrolling hundreds of students and hiring teachers, the Fort Myers school failed to open, leaving parents scrambling to find a school for their children,” the report said.
That was to be the fifth classical charter school Donalds’ Optima Foundation was to start up in Florida. As CBS News explained, classical charter schools are trending in conservative circles where parents want to reject a supposed woke agenda in public education.
MAGA politicians are all in, of course. “Recent moves by both the federal government and local officials in Florida have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding,” according to CBS.
Erika Donalds seems to have made good use of the trend and her position. CBS reported that between 2020 and 2024, the four schools she helped launch “spent roughly 30% of the government funding they received — totaling about $35 million — on outside firms with ties to Erika Donalds.”
“In August, Byron Donalds filed an amended House financial disclosure for 2023, reporting that Erika Donalds held a stake in two of those firms each worth between $1 million and $5 million. His most recent disclosure, for 2024, again listed her stakes in those companies,” CBS found. But a spokesperson said Mrs. Donalds declined to say exactly how much she earned from those two firms.
Yet, as per CBS, Donalds recently told the Miami Herald, “I have nothing to hide. I am the most open book ever. I’m going to disclose what I need to disclose under the law. That’s it.” Oh.
She also received more than $500,000 in salary from a third company that also sold services to the schools.
The students at the schools Donalds started made out far less well. Bruce Baker, an expert a professor at the University of Miami, who studies charter school financing, told CBS that “Florida’s charter sector is not strong” and the four schools Donalds started “perform even less well.”
All four of Donalds’ classical charter schools that opened have since cut ties with Optima, CBS discovered. And the Fort Myers school is no longer associated with Donalds or her company.
