The mainstream media typically ignores charter school scandals, but CBS picked up on this one. Erika Donalds is building a for-profit charter school chain. She is the wife of Byron Donalds, who is running for Governor of Florida with Donald Trump’s blessing.

Byron Donalds has been a staunch supporter of Trump. Donalds is African American. Frankly, I don’t understand how he can be part of a political movement that seeks to eliminate Black history, dismantle studies of race and gender, and disparage any efforts to rectify historic racial injustices. I hope reporters ask him about these questions on the campaign trail.

Peter Greene saw the segment on CBS and posted the video. In his piece, he refers to Erika Donalds as “Florida’s leading school choice grifter.”

CBS reporters wrote:

Kathleen Cetola believed she had found the perfect fit for her 9-year-old grandson Landon when Optima Classical Academy broke ground in 2023 near her home in Fort Myers, Florida. As the primary caregiver for Landon, Cetola was drawn to the smaller class sizes and more traditional curriculum, which she felt would be “less woke” than the public school he was currently attending.

“Regarding gender and race, I want him to be able to make up his own mind,” Cetola told CBS News. “They were selling the fact that they were focused on the education and the classical type of teaching. I thought that was going to be a great opportunity for Landon.”

The Optima school in Fort Myers was founded by Erika Donalds, a leading voice in the school choice movement and the wife of Congressman Byron Donalds, the Republican frontrunner in next year’s Florida governor’s race. It was poised to be Erika Donalds’ fifth classical charter school and part of a flourishing trend.

Classical charter schools offer a curriculum with a Eurocentric focus that stresses traditional values and introduces primary source documents like the U.S. Constitution at an early age. In the last five years, more than 250 classical schools have opened across the country. Many conservative politicians argue these schools are needed to reject what they see as a pervasive woke agenda in American public education.

Donalds has been a face of the classical charter movement, touring the country to tout their value. In an October speech to a group of conservative college women, she spoke about her decision to start her own schools. She said it was born out of her own experience trying to educate her children.

“I knew there were so many families out there that were desperate for this option,” she said.

Yet, after enrolling hundreds of students and hiring teachers, the Fort Myers school failed to open, leaving parents scrambling to find a school for their children.

“I feel cheated,” said Cetola, who was one of a half dozen parents who told CBS News they had signed up their kids to attend. “These kids were cheated, and it’s heartbreaking….”

The confusion the parents faced, according to experts, is not unique within a charter school industry that often operates with less transparency than traditional public schools.

Donalds declined to be interviewed for this story. In a statement, her spokesperson said she is “an accomplished businesswoman with a strong record of starting successful charter schools and providing thousands of students with an excellent education.”

Taxpayer-funded charter schools paid outside firms

Classical schools are one slice of a charter industry that GOP leaders have tapped to remake America’s public education system. Recent moves by both the federal government and local officials in Florida have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding. In September, the Trump administration announced it was investing half a billion dollars in grant programs that support charter schools.

The announcement came as Florida passed a law — at the urging of hedge fund manager and Republican megadonor Ken Griffin — to allow charter schools to operate inside traditional public school buildings.

CBS News reviewed state education data, financial documents, independent audits and faculty comments at four schools Donalds had helped launch. State data shows when it came to academic performance, one of the schools quickly excelled. But the records also raise questions about how public money was being spent by the schools.

Tax filings reviewed by CBS News show, between 2020 and 2023, the schools spent roughly 30% of the government funding they received — totaling about $35 million — on outside firms with ties to Erika Donalds. A source familiar with these arrangements said they landed the schools a good price on payroll expenses, IT and other back-office services.

In August, Byron Donalds filed an amended House financial disclosure for 2023, reporting that Erika Donalds held a stake in two of those firms each worth between $1 million and $5 million. His most recent disclosure, for 2024, again listed her stakes in those companies.

The amended disclosure was first reported by the Florida Bulldog…

Of course, parents in Fort Meyers who signed up for Donalds’ school were disappointed when it didn’t open as promised.

They had been promised that the school would open in the fall of 2024. Erika Donalds told them that financial challenges and the lingering effects of Hurricane Ian required her to delay the opening. Parents eagerly anticipated the opening in the fall of 2025, but it was again announced that the opening would be delayed, this time to 2026.

Prior to the school in Fort Myers, Donalds helped launch four other classical charter schools operated by Optima across Florida: two in Jacksonville, one in Stuart and one in Naples.https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/y9D5j/

Baker, the charter school expert at the University of Miami, said the practice reflected in Optima’s tax filings — of non-profit schools paying money to for-profit companies with overlapping stakeholders — occurs across the charter school industry. He said in the absence of meaningful governmental regulation, accountability comes from “how well they do for students.”

On that measure, students at those four Optima schools performed below average, according to Baker, who looked at math and reading test scores.

“Florida’s charter sector is not strong, and Optima schools, at least the four schools that seem to be in that affiliated mix, perform even less well,” Baker said.

The learning curve when it comes to implementing the classical curriculum can be steep, according to Janine Swearingin, who served as Treasure Coast Classical’s first principal from 2019 to 2022 and would later go on to work directly with Donalds at Optima. She praised Donalds and the company’s role in launching the school, which she said consistently earned top marks from the state when it came to academic performance when she was there.

In January 2023, after Swearingin left the school, the board of Treasure Coast Classical Academy commissioned an independent “performance audit” which was intended to draw attention to areas of concern. The resulting report said that while there were “commendable” aspects of the school’s performance, it also raised questions. Class sizes were so large, it said, that they appeared to violate state law and it noted a lack of structure in the classroom, all findings that Optima disputed.

The auditor praised Treasure Coast Classical’s “outstanding” financial health. But, some faculty complained Optima operated more like a “franchising corporation” and was “dedicated to profit sometimes to the detriment of the school itself.”

“It’s quite an undertaking since teachers don’t generally receive an education in teaching a classical curriculum,” said Swearingin, who noted that in a classical curriculum, first graders are studying the American Revolution at a time when their public school counterparts are learning about community helpers and basic geography. “The training is vastly different.”

As part of its response, Optima said it was working with the auditor “to build trust, address remaining concerns, and correct misinformation or misunderstandings.” A month later, the school’s board moved to terminate its contract with Optima. Treasure Coast Classical later sued Optima, alleging numerous instances of breach of its contract with the school. A county judge dismissed the lawsuit ruling because it had been filed in the wrong venue, and Treasure Coast Classical has appealed.

According to meeting minutes of the schools’ boards as well as county officials and school administrators contacted by CBS News, all four schools that had opened have since cut ties with Optima. The schools still offer a classical curriculum, but under different management. A source close to Donalds told CBS News that Optima’s plan all along was to assist with the start-up and then move on, once the schools reached “full stability.”

Donalds’ spokesperson noted that the schools’ academic performance eventually improved. “These schools show how a supportive environment, committed teachers, and high expectations can help children thrive,” she said.

The school in Fort Myers that had planned to open as Optima Academy is no longer associated with Donalds or her company. According to county records obtained by CBS News, Donalds in August sought to transfer ownership of the building to another charter operator. In October, the county school board approved the transfer and the new operator plans to open the school next fall.

“They just dropped the ball and ran,” Cetola said. “How can you do something like this and sell this to parents who really want to stay involved with their children and then just walk away?”

This story has been updated.

Credits

Reporting by Michael Kaplan, Mark Strassman and Emma Nicholson. Production by Michael Kaplan, Emma Nicholson and Alyssa Spady. Photos and videography by Ryan Jackson. Video editing by Greg Hotsenpiller. Graphics, design and development by Taylor Johnston. Editing by Ellen Uchimiya and Matthew Mosk.