Education · Issue 6 of 12
Profiting while students fall behind
Byron Donalds and his wife have profited from a network of unaccountable corporate-run schools they founded. Despite student achievement lagging, they’ve taken millions of taxpayer dollars away from neighborhood public schools, thanks in part to a bill Donalds sponsored.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, edited
The facts
Every fact links to its source. Tap a number to jump to the full citation at the bottom of this page.
Byron Donalds’ wife, Erika Donalds, held a stake in two private firms which received millions from the same private schools she was involved in. 1
Florida’s private school voucher program redirects billions of taxpayer dollars away from public schools. 2
Students at four Optima schools in Florida that the Donaldses helped launch performed below average in math and reading. 1
Byron Donalds sponsored a bill expanding the school voucher program. 3
Tell Byron Donalds: fund our schools, not his profits.
Sources
Every claim on this page, with links to the votes, filings and reporting behind it.
- CBS News, Florida charter schools investigation, Dec. 2, 2025
- WUFT, Private school vouchers in Florida redirecting funding away from public schools, Dec. 1, 2025
- Florida Senate, CS/CS/HB 1: The Hope Scholarship Program, 2018