Byron Donalds is asking Floridians to make him governor — the person who signs the state budget that pays for public schools, including charter schools. A new investigation shows how much his own family's money depends on that budget.
Five state-funded charter schools have paid more than $30 million over the last four years to two private companies run by his wife, Erika Donalds, according to a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald analysis of tax filings and state audits. That figure is revenue to her organizations, the Times notes — her personal profit isn't publicly reported.
And the biggest payday is still coming. Her company OptimaEd LLC is on track to charge an online charter school, Optima Classical Academy, $15.7 million in fees for the 2026–27 school year, budget documents show.
How taxpayer money reaches a private company
Florida law says charter schools must be run by nonprofits or public bodies, not for-profit companies. But those nonprofits can hire private companies to run things — and that's where Erika Donalds's businesses come in.
In the case of Optima Classical Academy, the Times found, all of the taxpayer money the school's nonprofit receives goes straight to her for-profit company. That includes:
- $9.7 million from the state budget the governor approves
- $4 million in local property taxes
- $2 million from a Collier County school funding referendum
Once the money reaches her companies, how it's spent and how much executives are paid is not publicly reported. Critics call these all-in management contracts a loophole that keeps taxpayer money out of public view. "Having people connected to or in positions of power to regulate these things who are benefiting from them not being regulated, in my view, is problematic," University of Miami education professor Bruce Baker told the Times.
Most of the family's wealth comes from her companies
Byron Donalds's own congressional disclosures tell the story. After 2020, he valued his personal assets at $510,000 or less every year. Meanwhile, his wife's holdings grew alongside her companies' contracts with taxpayer-funded schools.
The couple's total reported wealth peaked at somewhere between $2.1 million and $11 million in 2023 — the year her companies held management contracts with five publicly funded charter schools across Florida. Her stake in her two management companies alone was worth between $2 million and $10 million that year, according to his disclosures.
Byron Donalds pushed back that his wife's company values "shouldn't be confused with personal income." But by his own filings, most of what the family owns is tied to companies that are paid with public education money.
His disclosures have had problems before. We reported this month that Donalds's disclosures have been wrong his whole time in Congress, including a retirement account from his wife's charter school company that he didn't report for years.
"Profit is not going to be a bad word"
This isn't a business the Donaldses plan to wall off. Erika Donalds has promised that as governor, her husband will pave the way for an "economy of education" where "profit is not going to be a bad word," the Times reported.
She also told the Times she has no plans to slow down if he wins. "I plan to continue my business and foundation leadership roles," she said. Her argument: her companies are paid by the charter schools, not directly by the state.
But the state's money is exactly what those schools pass along. And the governor signs off on the per-student funding the Legislature puts in the budget every year.
Ethics experts see a conflict
Ethics experts told the Times the family's reliance on state per-student funding could present an ethical conflict for a Governor Donalds.
"I could see political controversy after controversy arising from this situation," said Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen. Florida's ethics code covers the governor but not the governor's spouse — something Holman thinks should change.
Donalds says he'll recuse himself when the law requires it. "If elected, I will follow legal guidance and comply with all ethics requirements, including recusal," he said. But Miami ethics lawyer Brian Tannebaum told the Times that recusal isn't always a clean fix for a governor, who is a single executive. And Baker said he doesn't know of any other governor with "the same kind of personal wealth accumulated in that one space over which they then would have regulatory authority."
Not every school was happy
Some schools have walked away from Erika Donalds's companies, according to the Times:
- Two Jacksonville schools switched management teams in mid-2023, and their financial statements blamed her foundation for past auditing problems. They had paid her companies $2.6 million. (She disputes the auditing claim, and says the schools' partnerships with her foundation were always meant to be temporary.)
- Treasure Coast Classical Academy cut ties with her foundation and is suing it for alleged breach of contract. The case is ongoing.
- Naples Classical Academy has cut the management fee it pays her company from 12% of its revenue to 1% as it moves to run itself.
Meanwhile, the online school keeps paying more: $10 million to OptimaEd last year, and more than $15 million planned this year.
Why it matters
Florida's governor signs the budget that decides how much public money flows to charter schools. Byron Donalds would take that job while his household's biggest source of wealth is a set of companies that live on that money — and while his wife promises to keep growing them and calls for an education economy where profit isn't "a bad word."
What the filings show
Five state-funded charter schools have paid more than $30 million in four years to companies run by Erika Donalds, and one online school plans to pay her company $15.7 million more this year — all of its taxpayer funding. Byron Donalds's own disclosures put his personal assets at $510,000 or less in every year after 2020 while the couple's wealth peaked at up to $11 million, driven by her companies. He is running to be the governor who signs the budget those schools are paid from, and his wife says she won't step back from the business if he wins.
