3 takeaways from Erika Donalds’ education discussion at New College
She celebrated school choice and AI at a talk moderated by the school’s president, Richard Corcoran.
Tampa Bay Times | By: Lucy Marques | October 14, 2026
Erika Donalds, a school choice activist and the wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, sat down with New College of Florida president Richard Corcoran Tuesday in Sarasota for a discussion on education.
Donalds, a former Collier County school board member who founded a company that started charter schools for classical education, was invited as part of the college’s Markovitz Socratic Stage series, which hosts speakers to discuss relevant policy issues.
She and her husband, a U.S. House member, made higher education headlines last month when they showed up to a University of South Florida football game alongside Sen. Ashley Moody.
The campaign for Donalds’ opponent in the governor’s race, David Jolly, said afterward that it was disappointed in the university’s decision to platform a political candidate. A USF spokesperson said the university did not explicitly invite them and they were introduced with the offices they currently hold, not as candidates seeking election.
A New College spokesperson did not respond to an email, text or phone call about why Donalds was invited to Tuesday’s event, or if the university invited anyone affiliated with Jolly’s campaign to speak in the Socratic Stage series.
Donalds did not directly discuss her husband’s run for governor during the event, though at times, indirect references popped through.
“We also need additional funding, so if there’s anybody you may know in the next few months that can help us with that additional funding, we’re open to it,” Corcoran quipped.
Here are three takeaways from her talking points at the event.
A push for parental choice
The A-graded elementary school Donalds and her husband moved to wasn’t a good fit for all of her kids, she said.
Donalds said her oldest child did great, but her second was miserable and begged not to go.
The school recommended that he go on medication, which Donalds said she knew was not the right decision. She and her husband pulled him out of school and enrolled him in a small classical, Christian school, where she said he thrived.
The marketplace of education options is expanding for parents, which is bringing more accountability for districts who now have to close schools that parents don’t want, she said.
Parents know what’s best for their child, she said, and shouldn’t have to send them to a school that teaches things that don’t align with their “value system.”
Traditional school districts have been hostile to parents for years, and school boards represent their district — not taxpayers, she said.
Donalds said she was upset that the previous generation let the school system fail students and parents.
“I just refuse to stand back and allow it to continue, so hopefully you guys are all on board,” she said to audience applause. “We’ve got to change it.”
A change on AI in classrooms
Talking about artificial intelligence has gotten her in trouble recently, Donalds said with a laugh.
In September, she said in a roundtable discussion that teachers are the biggest blockade to implementing new technologies for students. She created OptimaEd, a company that makes AI teaching tools.
She said on Tuesday that she thinks AI can help track students better and ensure money is properly appropriated. It can also help teachers with responsibilities outside of teaching, like grading and filling out paperwork, she said. AI can also identify where students are falling behind, she said.
Donalds said she wants to give teachers back time for things only a human can do.
“Teachers can uniquely convey a passion for a subject and knowledge, and inspire their students to want to learn and know more,” she said. “And AI can’t do that, and so I would never advocate for AI to replace a teacher.”
Districts should set teacher pay
Donalds said she wants great teachers to get paid more and for low-performing teachers to “find another line of work and something that better suits their talents.”
When she was on the Collier County School Board, Donalds said she tried to give three years of increasing bonuses to veteran educators to teach in a disadvantaged area of the county that had 20% new teachers.
The plan fell apart in bargaining with the teachers’ union, she said, and every teacher in the disadvantaged area got a bonus. This didn’t impact students at all, she said.
Teacher pay should be up to the districts, she said.
“What does the state know about how much a teacher in a classroom right here should get paid?” she said. “They’re not evaluating their performance. They’re not able to observe their classroom,” she said.
School choice will also help increase teacher pay, she said, because it fosters competition for the best teachers, who can demand a higher salary from school to school.
