In early 2021, Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donald and his wife, Erica, took the stage at an event hosted by the Truth and Freedom Coalition, a group that pushes to infuse Christianity into public schools and other institutions and whose leaders described it as follows: Homosexuality is the work of Satan.
The couple were warmly welcomed as allies in this work. Mrs. Donalds was honored for her work in opening a charter school in Florida. As a state legislator, Mr. Donald created a school voucher program that ensured that children received “a biblical worldview education,” as one speaker put it.
Mr. Donald addressed the group with characteristic humility. He said he was just a “poor kid from Brooklyn” who doggedly pursued his own interests and achieved good results.
He equally urged the group to “be bold.”
Mr. Donalds’ career is a testament to his counsel. His interests, including public education, evangelical Christianity, and the election of Donald J. Trump, fueled his rapid political rise. Donald, 45, a second-term backbencher in the House of Representatives, quickly became a prominent surrogate for Trump’s presidential campaign and a regular in conservative media, providing serious and on-message defense of the former president.
President Trump paid attention to this. He personally introduced Donald as the “next governor of Florida” and spoke with advisers about the congressman as a potential running mate.
The national attention isn’t as noticeable in Florida, where the Donaldses have spent years building their name and business in the state’s fierce battle over schools.
The Donalds were early activists in an increasingly influential network seeking to transform traditional public education in Florida and beyond. Long before the recent battles over book bans and critical race theory, these efforts framed public schools as failed laboratories for liberal ideas and pushed to channel public education funds into charter or private schools.
Mr. Donalds supported legislation to give outside groups a greater say in school curriculum years before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started a national debate by making it easier to remove books from school libraries and restrict teaching about sex and gender. .
The couple is a leading force in this debate, including Moms for Liberty, Hillsdale College, and the Florida Citizens Alliance, which are pushing for schools to remove books they deem inappropriate. We have a deep relationship with. The Donalds have made comments condemning homosexuality.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Mr. Donald described heterosexual relationships as “the natural order of things that keeps society moving forward.” “Homosexuality is a sin just like any other sexual sin and we all need forgiveness and mercy for our faults,” Mrs. Donald wrote in a 2017 tweet.
The couple’s work was both advocacy and income. Mr. Donalds began pushing legislation to expand access to charter schools and voucher programs while founding companies and nonprofits to take advantage of these expansions.
“Byron and Erica have been known in Florida for years as warriors fighting to ensure that all children have access to a quality education.” said Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based but now conservative education group. As a political power broker. “The reputation is spreading across the country.”
As President Trump campaigned, he embraced new education politics, saying public schools had been overrun by “pink-haired communists” and promising to close the Department of Education if re-elected. And he’s surrounded himself with like-minded supporters like the Donaldses.
President Trump gave the congressman an enthusiastic welcome at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago this month, saying Donalds had “something very special politically” and that he was a favorite among the club’s wealthy clientele. “We don’t have poor people. This is the only thing I don’t like about Mar-a-Lago. I love diversity,” the former president said while introducing Mr. Donalds, who is black.
He also publicly praised Ms Donald, who is currently an advisory board member of the Heritage Foundation, sparking speculation that she might be considered for a position in the next administration.
“I know more about education than anyone I know,” she said at the Florida Freedom Summit last fall. “So stay close,” Trump added, nodding to her in the audience. “Relax, okay?”
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Donalds’ interest in education policy began with his childhood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, he said in an interview. His mother was a public school teacher and administrator. But when she felt he wasn’t being challenged, she pulled him out of his public elementary school and sent him to a private school, she said.
“She thought there was more to me than a public school classroom, and she was right,” he said. “School choice has always been important to me because it has been my life. I think having choices is important for every child and it’s important for families.”
The person who led him to evangelical Christianity was Mrs. Donald, whom he met in college. His complete conversion came when he was 22 years old while waiting tables at a Cracker Barrel. He said he felt called and “gave my life to Christ.”
The couple settled in Naples, Florida, and were active in school, watching one of their children struggle in public school, Mrs. Donald said. She was elected to the local school board. Both began working to open charter schools, which are schools funded by taxpayers but operated independently.
In 2017, Mr. Donalds was sworn in as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, serving his Naples-area district. That same year, Mrs. Donalds launched her charter school management operation, OptimaEd.
The couple’s affairs often intersected. Mr. Donalds was a co-sponsor of a bill that would, among other things, allow charter schools to obtain additional funding from local tax initiatives. He supported term limits for school board members. The proposal was one Ms. Donalds had long pursued as a way to force her departure and potentially make room for charter school advocates.
In Florida’s part-time legislature, couples with overlapping careers are common. Caroline Klancke, former general counsel for the Florida Ethics Commission, said the rules for lawmakers are much looser than those for local officials. Local officials are more restrictive about potential conflicts with family businesses, she said.
“We didn’t send her any money directly,” Mr. Donalds said, referring to Ms. Donalds. “We were setting up a programmatic change in the state of Florida,” she said.
In 2022, Mrs. Donalds was managing several charter schools in Florida. According to her contract, her company was paid about 10 percent of the school’s public funds to provide human resources, marketing and other services. Public records show that year the company raised about $4 million in public funds and invested about $2.6 million in the school, with Mrs. Donald receiving a salary of about $180,000.
These figures have caused tension in schools. Three charter schools managed by OptimaEd subsequently terminated their contracts with the company amid complaints that it returned too little money to the schools, according to public records and three school officials who requested anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Mrs. Donald did not respond to a request for comment.
She is increasingly focusing her business on online academies and virtual classes that accept vouchers. In 2017, her husband led a successful effort to refund private school tuition to students who claimed they had been bullied. Last year, Florida went even further, expanding its voucher program to all students regardless of status or income and providing a new stream of public funding for private schools.
Sowing the seeds of the ‘parental rights’ debate
Advocates described how the couple helped lay the groundwork for pandemic-era policies that have put Florida at the center of the education debate.
In 2015, Ms. Donalds started a network of conservative school board members with the women who lead Moms for Liberty. (Mrs. Donald is an advisor to Moms for Freedom.)
The Donaldses were some of the first members of the Florida Citizens Coalition, according to group founder Keith Flaugh. The alliance has pushed for books to be removed from schools that it claims instill progressive ideas in children, including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and other classics by African-American authors.
Mr. Donalds has supported and taken credit for some of Mr. DeSantis’ education policies. After Florida’s governor passed a bill allowing anyone to petition to have books removed from school libraries, Mr. Donalds described the law as an extension of his work in the legislature.
Under pressure from schools, Mr. DeSantis recently rolled back his own law limiting the number of complaints that outsiders can file, noting that the process has been abused by outside groups.
Carlos Guillermo Smith, who was a legislator with Mr. Donald and now advises the LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida, said these laws “have denied many students access to education and important reading materials.” “In the end, none of this was necessary.”
But in a speech at the Conservative Party Political Action Conference, often seen as an audition for budding politicians, Mr Donalds made it clear he was committed to his vision for the school.
“We are going to fundamentally transform the American government,” he said to applause. “The last major area where we really need a revival of American leadership is our culture: our children.”
