In early 2021, Rep. Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida, and his wife Erika took the stage at an event hosted by the Truth & Liberty Coalition, a group that works to introduce Christianity in public schools and other institutions, and whose leaders described it has homosexuality as the work of Satan.
The pair were warmly welcomed as allies in the cause. Ms. Donalds was recognized for opening a charter school in Florida. As a state legislator, Mr. Donalds had created a school voucher program that gave children, as a spokesman put it, “a biblical worldview education.”
Mr. Donalds addressed the group with his characteristic humility. He was just a “poor kid from Brooklyn,” he said, who made it by doggedly pursuing his interests.
He urged the group to do the same: “Be brave.”
Mr. Donalds’ career is a testament to his advice. His interests — public education reform, evangelical Christianity and the election of Donald J. Trump — have fueled a rapid political rise. Donalds, 45, a backbench congressman in only his second term, has quickly become a prominent surrogate for Trump’s presidential campaign and a regular conservative media figure who earnestly defends the former president in his messaging.
Mr. Trump noticed. He has privately introduced Mr. Donalds as the “next governor of Florida” and has spoken to aides about the congressman as a potential vice president.
The national attention is less notable for that in Florida, where the Donalds have spent years building a name — and a business — for themselves in the state’s red-hot school battles.
Mr. and Mrs. Donalds were early activists in an increasingly influential network that sought to transform traditional public education – in Florida and beyond. Long before the recent battles over book bans and critical race theory, these efforts portrayed public schools as failed laboratories for liberal ideas and pushed for directing public education dollars to charter or private schools.
Mr. Donalds supported legislation that gave outside groups a greater say in curriculum years before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sparked a national debate by making it easier for groups to remove books from school libraries and the teaching of sexuality and gender restricted.
The couple is closely associated with the leaders of these debates, including Moms for Liberty, Hillsdale College and the Florida Citizens Alliance, which has worked to remove books it deems inappropriate from schools. Both Mr. and Mrs. Donalds have made comments denigrating homosexuality.
In his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Mr. Donalds described heterosexual relationships as “the natural order that drives the progress of society.” In a tweet in 2017, Ms Donalds wrote: “Homosexuality is a sin like any other sexual sin, and we sinners all need forgiveness and grace for our shortcomings.”
The couple’s work was as much advocacy as it was a source of income. As Mr. Donalds advanced legislation that expanded access to charter schools and voucher programs, Ms. Donalds began building a business and nonprofit that benefited from that expansion.
“Byron and Erika have been known in Florida for years as warriors in the fight to ensure that all children receive a quality education,” said Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a conservative education group that was founded in Florida but has since become established as a political power broker. “This reputation is spreading nationwide.”
During Mr. Trump’s campaign, he embraced the new education policy, claiming that public schools had been overrun by “pink-haired communists” and promising to close the Education Department if re-elected. And he has surrounded himself with like-minded supporters like the Donalds.
Mr. Trump enthusiastically greeted the congressman at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago this month, saying that Mr. Donalds had “something very special politically” and that he was a favorite among his club’s wealthy clientele. “We don’t have poor people, that’s the only thing I don’t like about Mar-a-Lago, you know — I like diversity,” the former president said while introducing Mr. Donalds, who is Black.
He has also publicly praised Ms. Donalds, who is now a member of the Heritage Foundation’s advisory board, leading to speculation that she could be considered for a future administrative post.
She knows “more about education than anyone I know,” he said at the Florida Freedom Summit last fall. “So stay at the ready,” Mr. Trump added, nodding to her in the audience. “Stay handy, okay?”
A conversion
Mr. Donalds’ interest in education policy dates back to his childhood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, he said in an interview. His mother was a public school teacher and administrator. But she took him out of his public elementary school and sent him to private schools when she felt he wasn’t being challenged, he said.
“She thought there was more to me than just a public school classroom, and she was right,” he said. “School choice was always important to me because it was my life. Just having the choice I think is important for every child and important for families.”
It was Mrs. Donalds, whom he met in college, who drew him to evangelical Christianity. His full conversion occurred when he was 22 years old and waiting tables at the Cracker Barrel. He felt the call and “gave my life to Christ,” he said.
The couple settled in Naples, Florida, and became involved in schools as they watched one of their children struggle in public school, Ms. Donalds said. She was elected to the local school board. Both began by opening a charter school – a school funded by taxpayers but operated independently.
In 2017, Mr. Donalds was sworn in as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing a Naples-area district. That same year, Ms. Donalds founded OptimaEd, a charter school management company.
The couple’s work often overlapped. Mr. Donalds co-sponsored a bill that, among other things, allowed charter schools to receive additional funding from local tax initiatives. He supported term limits for school board members, a proposal Ms. Donalds had long sought to force turnover and potentially create seats for charter school advocates.
Florida’s part-time legislature often features couples with overlapping careers. The rules for lawmakers are much looser than for local officials, who are more limited in potential conflicts with family businesses, said Caroline Klancke, a former general counsel for the Florida Commission on Ethics.
“We didn’t funnel any money directly to her,” Mr. Donalds said, referring to Ms. Donalds. “We have initiated a programmatic change at Florida State.”
In 2022, Ms. Donalds led several charter schools in Florida. According to the contracts, her company received a share of about 10 percent of the schools’ public funding to provide staffing, marketing and other services. This year, the company raised about $4 million in public money and donated about $2.6 million back to schools, public records show, while Ms. Donalds received a salary of about $180,000.
These numbers created tensions with schools. Since then, three charter schools managed by OptimaEd have terminated their contracts with the company, complaining that they were not returning enough money to the schools, public records show, and three people involved in the schools who requested anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Ms. Donalds did not respond to a request for comment.
She has increasingly focused her business on an online academy and virtual courses that accept vouchers. In 2017, her husband made a successful attempt to reimburse private school tuition for students who said they were bullied. Last year, Florida went much further by expanding its voucher programs to all students, regardless of their circumstances or income, and opening a new stream of public money for private schools.
Providing impetus for the debate about “parental rights.”
Advocates described how the pair helped lay the groundwork for pandemic-era policies that put Florida at the center of the education debate.
In 2015, Ms. Donalds founded a network of conservative school board members with women who later led Moms for Liberty. (Ms. Donalds is a Moms for Liberty advisor.)
According to the group’s founder, Keith Flaugh, the Donalds were among the first members of the Florida Citizens Alliance. The alliance is pushing to remove from schools books that it claims indoctrinate children with liberal ideas, including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and other classics by African-American authors.
Mr. Donalds has applauded — and received credit for — some of Mr. DeSantis’ education policies. After Florida’s governor passed a high-profile bill allowing anyone to petition to have a book removed from a school library, Mr. Donalds described the law as an extension of his work in the Legislature.
Under pressure from schools, Mr. DeSantis recently rolled back his law, limiting the number of complaints from outsiders and noting that the process had been abused by outside groups.
Those laws “denied many students access to education and important reading materials,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, who was a lawmaker alongside Mr. Donald and now advises Equality Florida, an LGBTQ rights organization. “In the end, none of this was necessary.”
But in his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an event often seen as an audition for up-and-coming politicians, Mr. Donalds made clear he is committed to his vision for schools.
“We are going to fundamentally transform the government of the United States,” he said to applause. “The last big area where we really need a revival of American leadership is in our culture, and that is with our children.”
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2024-05-28 01:02:15
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