‘Profit is not going to be a bad word’: Byron Donalds wants to reshape education
Congressman Byron Donalds and his wife want to reshape Florida’s education system from the governor’s mansion — starting with how the state evaluates schools — the pair announced at a campaign event at Miami Dade College’s Doral campus Tuesday.
The Donalds’ vision for the future of education in Florida includes overhauling the state’s grading system for schools, opening the doors to Florida’s education system even wider to private enterprise and giving every child the type of individual education plans usually reserved for students with special needs.
“Profit is not going to be a bad word when it comes to the education industry,” Erika Donalds told the room of charter, private and home school advocates, state lawmakers, Doral council members and College trustees.
Byron Donalds’ pitch for education is an extension of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ open doors for taxpayer-funded education dollars going to private and charter schools — but with a new system of accountability for schools. He called the state’s current grading system, which gives underperforming schools C, D and F grades, inadequate.
“Revamping of the grading system is going to be to make sure that, yes, you are making sure the kids are getting the key fundamental building blocks of math, reading, writing, history, sciences,” the Republican congressman said Tuesday. “But also, what used to be taught, basic home economics. What is it to balance a checkbook? What is the time value of money? How does it impact you?”
What would replace Florida’s school grading system under Donalds, the frontrunner to replace DeSantis next January, is not immediately clear. Another policy proposal he announced Tuesday is to develop the type of learning plans created for students with disabilities for every student in the state — and promote trades, apprenticeships and other post-high school options.
“What we want to see is that every child in the state has an individual learning plan, so we can chart their trajectory towards mastery by the time they graduate high school. And we can begin to educate them and their parents and help them and their parents realize the opportunities economically,” he said. “Maybe it’s going to be through the trades, and that is a normal thing.”
Donalds has been campaigning for governor for more than a year, but has released few specific policy proposals. His wife’s outspoken views on the future of education have offered some of the clearest insight into where he might try to take the state as governor.
She described her vision of the future of education Tuesday as unimaginable — comparing the current education system to the first iterations of cell phones.
“I believe that our education system now — even with all the great choices that we have, even with the innovations that we have in place — we’re still that big brick bag cell phone being carried around on someone’s shoulder,” Erika Donalds said. “We cannot imagine when we unleash capitalism and free market competition in education.”
But as she pitches a political overhaul of public education under her husband’s potential leadership of the state, Erika Donalds also has deep business interests in the charter school industry. She’s a former investment firm executive who has built a career in recent years around charter school education.
She launched the nonprofit Optima Foundation, which establishes charter schools — and leads two for-profit charter school management companies, OptimaEd and Optima Management Solutions. Her companies have received millions in management contracts from taxpayer-funded charter schools, according to calculations by Florida Bulldog.
When asked by the Miami Herald about potential conflicts of interest and transparency concerns between her private companies and the charter school contracts she’s received, Erika Donalds described herself as simply an astute businesswoman.
“I believe that people should be compensated for their services and I don’t think I should be treated any differently,” she told reporters after Tuesday’s event.
Byron Donalds also defended her track record in response to questions about the reported concerns from parents after her planned charter school in Fort Myers hired teachers and enrolled students in 2024, and then failed to open.
“You can only open on one day, and so they weren’t able to make that construction deadline because of the hurricane that hit Southwest Florida and other permitting delays,” Byron Donalds said, adding that the school is now slated to open this August.
This story was originally published March 24, 2026 at 4:08 PM.
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