Representative Byron Donalds was named Chair of the Florida House PreK-12 Education Quality subcommittee. Donalds is married to Erika Donalds from Collier County. She was the organizer of the alternative Florida school board association whose members represent charter school interest. She was also sponsor of portions of the Constitutional Revision Commission’s Amendment 8 to create an independent school system. Since that amendment was removed from the November ballot, forms of it will no doubt emerge from the upcoming legislative session. The Donalds also helped found a Classical Academy charter school and are starting another one. These charters focus on ‘Christian values’.
How will Amendment 12 affect these legislators that appear to be profiting by their legislation? This was included in Amendment 12:
A public officer or public employee shall not abuse his or her public position in order to obtain a disproportionate benefit for himself or herself; his or her spouse …..
Yes, and a couple of years ago, John Legg pushes through a redefinition of conflict of interest. If the interest applies to a group e.g. charters in general, they are a ‘class’. Legislators can vote on ‘class’ interests even if they benefit personally. Curious to see how the Amendment 12 applies here.
In case you missed it, https://lwveducation.com/amendment-8-behind-the-scenes-political-ideology-religion-dark-money-billionaires-and-of-course-the-money-trail/.
Erika Donalds and Kelly Lichter, co-founded a Hillsdale College charter school, then got elected to Collier school board in 2014 as parent advocates. After two years of disruption, Collier voters denied reformers a school board majority. If Erika Donalds and the Florida Citizens’ Alliance (FLCA) had succeeded in getting a majority of seats on the Board (their goal since 2014), Erika would have left Collier with Louise Penta (retired nurse, now on the FLCA “additional board of directors”), Lee Dixon (parent and golf course manager), and Kelly LIchter (President of the Board of Directors of the Hillsdale College charter school called Mason Classical Academy, which the Donalds pulled their kids out of). Of these four, only Kelly has training and experience in education. Grateful to Collier voters for recognizing that Stephanie Lucarelli (parent and trained educator) and Erick Carter (parent and small business owner) would serve our district better.