Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Luis Santana

TNS

It’s a sunny early October afternoon in Coral Gables, and Erika Donalds is dressed sharply in a long red wrap dress and nude stilettos as she walks from table to table speaking to attendees at high tea at the Biltmore Hotel.

The event, hosted by the Republican Women’s Club of Miami, is another opportunity for Donalds to share her urgent message about education – all while attendees smear butter on scones, dip shrimp in cocktail sauce, and sip champagne.

Donalds — one of the nation’s most vocal advocates for school choice and the wife of Trump-endorsed candidate for Florida governor, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — is doubling down on her belief that the American education system is “sick” and needs healing. And she is taking that message to anyone in Florida who will listen.

Donald’s is a strong proponent of directing public dollars toward private schools and supports expanding laws that help facilitate establishing charter schools, which are often operated by for-profit management companies.

During her remarks, Donalds blamed the nation’s education system for contributing to a culture of hatred that, she said, fuels political violence like the killing of right wing activist Charlie Kirk.

“I think the education system is what resulted in this,” she said. “This indoctrination had to have come from somewhere. This young man didn’t get it at home — who else had that kind of influence on him to bring him to his level of hatred for what has made our country great?”

If her husband wins the governor’s race, Donalds is poised to become one of the most influential voices in education in Florida. The former school board member turned charter school executive has built her platform by criticizing the public school system, promoting school choice and private alternatives – all while profiting from establishing and providing services to charter schools throughout the state and nation.

Now, as she tours the state and country speaking about education, Donalds is positioning herself at the center of a conservative movement to redefine what schools in Florida — and the nation — should look like.

Charter school business and advocacy

Advocates for public education are concerned about what Donalds’ influence could mean for the state’s public schools should she become Florida’s First Lady in 2026.

“You have already witnessed a devastation of public education in our state, and it’s a bad situation that is going to become worse if she’s at the helm,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando.

A former finance professional, Donalds serves on advisory boards for the Classical Learning Test — an alternative to the SAT and ACT — and Moms for Liberty, the right-wing political organization that opposes school curricula mentioning LGBTQ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory and discrimination. She currently chairs the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Education Opportunity, a conservative think tank that promotes policies advancing President Trump’s agenda. She was also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, another conservative think tank.

She founded the nonprofit Optima Foundation, through which she opened six classical charter schools. She later established two for-profit charter school management companies, OptimaEd and Optima Management Solution. Florida Bulldog reported that a Florida Auditor General investigation revealed that the Optima Foundation would lose multiple management contracts with the charter schools over alleged faulty accounting practices, and others switched over to being managed by Donalds for-profit companies.

The Florida Bulldog also reported that when her husband filed his personal financial disclosures in 2021-22, he did not report some of his wife’s sources of income.

When asked about the controversy, Donalds said, “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.”

Donalds says she is able to balance her financial interests with her support for charter schools. “There’s no conflict between my advocacy and opening schools and offering options for families. It all works together.”

But Mina Hosseini, executive director of P.S. 305, a nonprofit that advocates for public education in Miami, said that from a governance standpoint, it raises questions around ethics.

“Anytime a policymaker has a private financial interest that overlaps with what’s best for public decision-making, it does undermine public trust,” she said.

Donalds continues to grow both her businesses and her advocacy for school choice. She also founded a nonprofit called the Education Freedom Foundation, which is expanding nationwide.

The foundation’s new “Start-a-School Initiative” provides both free and paid services to people trying to open charter, private or microschools.

Through her virtual school, Optima Academy Online, she has also created a curriculum that uses virtual-reality headsets for “virtual field trips.” The Classical model school accepts payment through taxpayer-funded scholarships in Florida.

“Only in America can you come from where we came from and, with the work ethic and God’s help and faith and family and community, can you achieve what we’ve been able to achieve,” she said.

Lean into school choice

Donalds’ speaking tour includes college campuses and conservative events. She recently hosted a talk at Florida International University titled “End the Department of Education.” That same week, she was scheduled to appear at the Moms for Liberty summit in Orlando and has upcoming engagements at Florida Atlantic University and Florida State University.

“I think we should lean all the way into private school choice, and I think we should continue to take care of the charter school sector. It’s an important component, but the private school sector and the [private school vouchers] model is going to give rise to more innovation,” she said.

She is also a proponent of the new expansion of the Schools of Hope legislation. The new rules, which allow charter schools to occupy facilities that are owned and operated by the public school districts – on school districts’ dime – just make fiscal sense, she says. Her husband was an early champion for the original Schools of Hope law when it passed the Florida Legislature in 2017.

She says she wants to expand the law even further, allowing access to public school facilities to more than just charter schools.

“It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a charter school, private school, or tutoring center. If parents are choosing to use that program, why wouldn’t we utilize that space?” she said.

But critics question how her own business interests may also be influencing her advocacy for charter-friendly laws.

“This pathway to create opportunities for charters to co-locate isn’t about empowering parents. It’s really shrinking what’s public and expanding what’s profitable for folks in the charter school business,” said Hosseini.

The largest local teachers’ union in the state is not happy, calling co-location “nothing more than a hostile takeover of public land and public property.”

“We’re going back to segregation. That’s what [co-location and privatization] amounts to. You’re going to have those who have and those who have not,” said Antonio White, president of the United Teachers of Dade.

But Donalds said she’s glad to see more districts closing under-enrolled schools, and views the dwindling enrollment numbers in public schools as proof of shifting demand. Across Florida, traditional public school systems have seen steep enrollment declines, including a 14,000-student drop this year in Miami-Dade County.

“There’s no reason to have the government in the business of competing with the private industry if the private industry is meeting the need,” she said. While she does not expect traditional public schools to disappear entirely, she said growing choice and competition could reduce the need for government involvement in education.

“Every education dollar should be parent-directed, putting parents in the driver’s seat as consumers of education,” said Donalds.

This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 11:02 AM.