This November, Florida chooses between Byron Donalds, who trusts parents to decide how their kids learn, and David Jolly, who wants the state to set the conditions. Here’s what that means for your family.
David Jolly’s plan would attach conditions to Florida’s scholarships: an income test to qualify, and public-school restrictions for the private schools families choose.
Byron Donalds wants parents, not the government, to make that call.
Byron Donalds on Florida parents: “They deserve to direct where these educational dollars go.” Source
Pick the one that fits. We’ll show you what this election means for your family.
Plenty of Florida families paid private school tuition before scholarships were open to everyone. They did it with a second job, extra shifts and missed dinners. The scholarship gave them that time back. That isn’t a loophole. That’s the point.
David Jolly says school choice was meant for families in need. He wants scholarships means-tested again, and argues most new scholarship families were already paying for private school.
SourceWho decides what “need” looks like? Under his plan, a line drawn in Tallahassee. Under a hard income line, a raise, a promotion or an overtime shift could cost your family its scholarship.
With two kids, that family would be over the last income limit by about $4,500. Nobody would call them wealthy.
Typical pay: registered nurse $84,190 and construction laborer $44,030 (Florida medians, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). Source
He hasn’t said where he’d set his line. It could be stricter than the old one.
Based on 375% of the 2026 federal poverty guideline, the income cap the Family Empowerment Scholarship used before HB 1 (2023). An illustration only, not an eligibility check.
Every line here is David Jolly’s, with when and where he said it. Follow the link and hear it yourself.
Said scholarships shouldn’t go to families in “white suburban communities.”
What it means for you: He sees middle-class families using scholarships as the problem to fix.
Called Florida’s scholarships “a choice program that is not required to teach kids to read.”
What it means for you: David Jolly believes parents aren’t capable of choosing a school that provides a proper education for their child.
“…we need to means test it and put rules and requirements on private schools…”
What it means for you: An income test for your family, and state rules for the private school you picked.
Called the scholarship program “underserving Florida’s families” and said voucher schools should meet the same standards as public schools.
What it means for you: The schools you chose would be remade to look like the ones you left.
Byron Donalds has put specific plans on the table. David Jolly’s biggest education promise has a math problem.
Every child reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Science-of-reading training for teachers, early checks in kindergarten through second grade, extra tutoring in third grade, and an award for teachers who get results.
SourceA personalized roadmap for every student, starting by sixth grade.
Built with parents, not bureaucrats, and updated every year. College, trade, military and entrepreneurship are treated as equally respected paths, and education dollars follow your child.
SourceReal-world experience before graduation.
More internships, apprenticeships, credentials and work-based learning for juniors and seniors, built with Florida employers.
SourceA 30% raise for every Florida public school teacher, using dollars already allotted for other uses. That raises two questions: Will more taxes be needed? And does the math add up?
He’d pay for it with tourist tax dollars, and says that would take a constitutional amendment in 2028, halfway through his term.
A 30% raise costs roughly $3 billion a year, before benefits. His own estimate of the tourist tax is about $1 billion a year.
He’s also pitched tourist tax money for workforce housing and for a hurricane catastrophe fund.
Our math: 174,858 public school teachers (state economists’ preliminary 2024–25 count) × $56,663 average salary (NEA, 2025–26) × 30% ≈ $2.97 billion a year, before benefits.
Florida has put billions toward teacher raises since 2020, including a record $1.56 billion this year. But in some districts, raises the state already paid for sat in limbo for months while union contract talks dragged on. Last year, state officials estimated negotiations had delayed raises in 16 districts.
Byron Donalds: “Do we want to be able to pay teachers more? Absolutely, we do.”
And he wants better pay for every teacher, whether they teach in a traditional public school, a charter school or a private school. Jolly’s raise covers only public school teachers.
Austin Horn, Miami Herald, October 2, 2026That’s how Orange County’s incoming school board chair described every child in the county, including kids who don’t attend its schools. At the same meeting, the superintendent proposed requiring homeschooled children to take the state test at their neighborhood public school.
Families who take no state scholarship.
Gallo noted that scholarship homeschoolers are handled separately: “we don’t handle the PEP students.” The roughly 9,000 students she described are independent homeschoolers, families paying their own way.
“A very simple solution is require that they take the state assessment.”
“Put a little bit more teeth in the statute.” “So many loopholes in the state law when it comes to home school.”
Wants to pursue “those conversations up in Tallahassee.”
In fairness, Gallo says what keeps her up at night is whether homeschooled kids are learning and safe. We believe parents are the ones who answer that question.
Who is Angie Gallo? A registered Democrat, elected Orange County School Board chair in August 2026. She served as president of the Florida School Boards Association from July 2025 to June 2026.
Changing Florida’s homeschool law takes a bill, and the governor signs or vetoes every one. The call for more oversight came from a Democratic school board leader with statewide connections. David Jolly is the Democrats’ candidate for governor. Byron Donalds trusts parents.
They called your kids “our kids.” Send this to a homeschool mom.
Not on everything. Without a single new law, a governor proposes the education budget and can veto parts of it, appoints the State Board of Education, which picks the Education Commissioner, and shapes the rules that run the scholarships: applications, renewals, which schools take part, and what families can spend on.
And if money runs short, the law already serves lower-income families first. Underfund the program, and middle-class families could be left waiting.
Florida’s own data says otherwise. As the state’s scholarship grew, public schools with more private school options nearby saw their own students improve: higher test scores, fewer absences, fewer suspensions. Lower-income students gained the most.
See the studyFlorida’s homeschool freedom rests on how much the people in charge trust parents. The governor appoints the board that writes the state’s education rules, and in Orange County, the superintendent has already proposed requiring homeschooled kids to take the state test at their neighborhood public school.
See the clipThe direction at the top sets the direction everywhere.
What research says about how kids do when parents get to choose. Every number has a source.
As Florida’s scholarship grew from 15,000 to more than 100,000 students, public schools with more private school options nearby, the schools most at risk of losing students, saw their own students improve: higher test scores, fewer absences, fewer suspensions. Lower-income students gained the most.
Figlio, Hart & Karbownik, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2023. Read the study
Students are 19% more likely to enroll in college when they join Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship in high school. Those who stay three or more years are 50% more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Urban Institute (Chingos, Monarrez & Kuehn), 2019. Read the study
16 extra days of reading growth per school year, plus 6 in math, compared with matched public school peers. Black students gained 35 extra days in reading; Hispanic students, 30.
Stanford CREDO, National Charter School Study III, 2023. Read the summary
Homeschool graduates outperformed their classmates: a 3.41 first-year college GPA vs. 3.12, and 3.46 vs. 3.16 by fourth year. A Harvard study of 12,000+ young people also found homeschooled kids more likely to grow up with a sense of mission and purpose, and less likely to take health risks.
Cogan, Journal of College Admission, 2010. Read the GPA study. Chen, Hinton & VanderWeele, PLOS ONE, 2021. Read the Harvard study
students use a state scholarship. Nearly 1.4 million Florida students use some form of school choice, and about 153,000 are homeschooled.
Office of the Governor, January 2025; Florida Department of Education Home Education Annual Report, 2024–25. Scholarships Homeschool
would be the cutoff for a family of four under the last income limit Florida used. Earn a dollar more and you’re out.
375% of the 2026 federal poverty guideline, the Family Empowerment Scholarship cap before HB 1 (2023). Try the calculator
“When our district couldn’t give my son what his IEP legally required, I didn’t wait for anyone’s permission. I found something better. Every Florida parent deserves that freedom, and this election decides whether we keep it.”
You don’t have to figure this out alone. These are the places Florida parents already use.
Find a school that fits your child.
Teach at home, your way.
Use a scholarship for tutors, therapies, classes and curriculum.
What to push for before you sign an IEP, and what Unique Abilities scholarship funds can pay for, from therapies to curriculum, and how to use them well.
From Jen Herold, a certified occupational therapist who’s sat on both sides of the table, and a homeschool mom who’s been there.
Most parents haven’t heard about this. Send it to the group chat, the co-op and the sideline crew.
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Parents and Teachers for Byron welcomes families and educators from every setting: public, charter, private and homeschool. Add your name and help keep parents and teachers at the head of the table.
Opens the official campaign coalition page at byrondonalds.com.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Mail ballots must arrive by 7 p.m. that day.