TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – The Florida midterm election is less than 40 days away.
Both the Republican and Democratic campaigns for governor pitched their education plans on Friday.
Stand-ins for the two candidates talked about education, a key campaign point, especially for parents.
David Jolly’s running mate, Gwen Graham, visited a Tallahassee school as part of her education-focused workday.
On the other side of the ballot, Erika Donalds, founder of the Education Freedom Foundation spoke virtually on behalf of her spouse Byron Donalds.
“My husband’s Launchpad Initiative, which repurposes the tax credit scholarship program to allow companies to get tax credits by funding 11th and 12th graders achieving internships, apprenticeships and on-the-job experience,” Erika Donalds said.
“Frankly, one of the things that worries me the most is that we need to have in our education. We need to put the screens down. We need to have our children with eyes up,” Graham said.
School choice remains a hot topic on the campaign trail. Donalds is pushing expansion plus ending waitlists and more choices, with Jolly focused on elevating public schools and ensuring transparency in the process.
“As a matter of fact, my children went to a choice program. What I am concern about is there is no transparency. There’s no accountability in the choice program. And if tax dollars are going to be spent, every parent that’s making a decision where to send his or her child should have the information they need to make an informed decision,” Graham said.
“We had, I believe, 40,000 families last year that received scholarships that were unable to use them. And the majority of those say it’s because there wasn’t a space for their child in the school that they wanted their child to go to,” Donalds said. “We’re seeing that especially in South Florida where there are waiting lists abound, whether it’s charter schools or schools of choice and private schools.
Election day is set for November 3, though some overseas ballots have already been returned.
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