The New College Foundation has announced a $1 million donation from Dr. Michael C. and Ling Z. Markovitz to establish a new campus program centered on debate, classical learning and public discourse.

The donation, made directly to the New College Foundation, will help the college establish the Markovitz Socratic Stage, a signature forum dedicated to revitalizing civil discourse, classical learning and the free exchange of ideas on campus.

“We believe deeply in the power of ideas — and the courage it takes to explore them openly,” Michael said in a statement. “New College is leading a movement to bring back real dialogue, real debate, and real education. We are honored to support this mission and help build a program where students learn to think for themselves, speak with conviction, and engage with the world in meaningful ways.”

The donation will support a series of debates, lectures and discussion-based events meant to bring together students, faculty, visiting scholars and community members for debates, dialogues, books discussions, lecture series, public forums, intellectual events open to the community, and student-centered opportunities.

The program will be integrated into New College’s Logos/Techne curriculum and is expected to launch as a recurring campus initiative open to the public.

College President Richard Corcoran called the gift a “defining moment” for the institution, saying it aligns with New College’s emphasis on classical education and intellectual freedom.

“Michael and Ling Markovitz have made a profound and visionary commitment to New College,” he said. “Their gift strengthens our mission to revive rigorous classical education and restore the humanities as a force for intellectual freedom. The Markovitz Socratic Stage will impact generations of students by giving them a place to think deeply, debate boldly, and seek truth fearlessly.”

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds’ bid for Governor is expanding its coalition network with the launch of a Faith Leaders Coalition.

The coalition includes clergy members, faith-based nonprofit leaders, and community figures who organize worship, volunteer efforts, and religious outreach across the state. Campaign officials said 65 Florida faith leaders have already signed on, with plans for weekly prayer calls led by rotating members of the group.

“God calls us to pray for our leaders. This is not about politics,” said Pastor Jearlyn Dennie, founder of She Leads Florida. “It is about standing in the gap and covering Byron Donalds’ leadership in prayer as we seek God’s best for our state of Florida.”

Another supporter, Anthony Verdugo, founder of the Florida Christian Family Coalition, framed the effort as both spiritual and civic.

“We are called to pray for our leaders, and Congressman Byron Donalds is a fearless leader who shares our values and needs our prayers,” Verdugo said. “In order for Florida to continue succeeding, common sense values of faith, family, and freedom must be reflected at the highest levels of state government in order to serve the public good.”

Verdugo added that policy decisions affect communities statewide, including houses of worship, and said the coalition exists “to lift up Florida in prayer and support for a leader who shares and practices our values.”

The Faith Leaders Coalition follows the campaign’s earlier rollout of a Veterans for Byron Coalition, which is co-chaired by elected officials who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and Navy JAG.

Donalds’ campaign has emphasized its momentum in both fundraising and endorsements.

He has secured backing from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, a majority of the Florida House Republican Caucus, multiple Sheriffs, 17 members of Florida’s congressional delegation, U.S. House Leadership, and conservative leaders at the state and national levels.

Evening Reads

—“Donald Trump taps Yale doctor who pushed unproven COVID treatment to lead U.S. cancer effort” via Ariana Eunjung Cha of The Washington Post

—”Trump dangles cash payments to buoy voters’ views of the economy” via Tony Romm and Andrew Duehren of The New York Times

—“Trump is already lining up his 2026 fall guy” via Chris Cillizza of So What

—”Frustrated GOP centrists back ACA vote, siding with House Democrats” via Siobhan Hughes of The Wall Street Journal

—“Congressional seats, even the safe ones, don’t come cheap” via Emily Goodin of Open Secrets

—“The DOJ’s messy effort to prosecute George Soros” via Tessa Stuart of Rolling Stone

—”The 2,000-year-old debate that reveals AI’s biggest problem” via Sigal Samuel of Vox

—”DEI died this year. Maybe it was supposed to” via Jason Parham of WIRED

—”Poll: Jerry Demings, David Jolly are tied, but concerns remain about nominating another former Republican” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics

—”Trackers, AI translators, pepper spray: Cabinet approves cops’ immigration requests” via Liv Caputo of the Florida Phoenix

Quote of the Day

“Almost every local government we have reviewed … has shown zero fiscal restraint.”

— CFO Blaise Ingoglia, introducing his priority legislation for the 2026 Session.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Send a Spyglass to the University of Florida’s new committee charged with conducting a national search for the school’s next leader.

The Democratic Primary for Governor remains neck-and-neck, but the spread changes once respondents are given a Déjà Vu.

Bob Buckhorn gets a Next Chapter for his mayoral campaign’s focus on growth and infrastructure.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

USF concludes season with unusual bowl game scenario

The USF team that beat Florida and spent time in the polls will conclude the season in the Cure Bowl against Old Dominion, but with some key pieces missing (5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Neither head coach Alex Golesh nor quarterback Byrum Brown will serve in the roles they manned during the season. Golesh took the head coaching job at Auburn and will not coach the Bulls in the game. Brown is sitting out the game and will instead serve as a coach for the team. After discussions with new Bulls coach Brian Hartline, Brown agreed it was best to sit out the game. He is likely to enter the transfer portal and seek a new start elsewhere.

On the other side, Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph also will not play. He announced his intentions to transfer when the portal opens on Jan. 2.

The game is a microcosm of some of the problems with college football. The diminishing importance of bowl games outside the College Football Playoff and the increased portability of players via the transfer portal make the postseason a different animal than it was in the past. 

In any event, the game presents an opportunity for both teams to pursue a 10-win season. USF has not won double-digit games since 2017, while Old Dominion has only one such season in program history, 2016.

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced last week that her department plans to step up efforts to rid federal student aid programs of “ghost students” – fake accounts set up by fraudsters to steal financial aid funds intended for real college students.

The Secretary (obviously) deserves praise for her initiative.

But she (and others) may be alarmed to learn of a scheme to fund “ghost students” in Florida’s K-12 public education system. And it’s being pushed by some members of the Florida Legislature!

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed an education bill containing a little-noticed provision that would pay public schools for students who never show up for class or never enroll in the first place.

The provision, tucked into a bill focused on Florida’s popular school choice scholarship programs, is designed to provide stable funding to public School Districts if and when their enrollment falls short of projections.

In recent years, many School Districts in Florida – and around the country – have found themselves in such a predicament. They’ve experienced declines in K-12 enrollment, primarily due to declining birth rates.

This has made it difficult for public School Districts to maintain their existing budgets, especially now that federal COVID-19 Emergency funds under the Biden administration have expired. And it has prompted some school superintendents to try to scapegoat school choice programs for public schools’ budget woes.

Now, an unabashed critic of public schools would no doubt look at this situation and ask, “If public school enrollments are declining, shouldn’t public school funding be declining, too?”  But one doesn’t have to be a public-school hater to see the folly of funding Casper and his “ghost student” friends.

Especially when there are better ways for public schools to generate new revenues.

Indeed, while some public-school leaders have been bellyaching about budgets, others have been more enterprising. They’ve decided to embrace (or at least accept) school choice as the “new normal.” And they’ve begun welcoming choice students who want to use a portion of their scholarship monies to pay for one or more “a la carte” courses offered by a public school.

These leaders recognize that public schools often have a comparative advantage in the marketplace when it comes to teaching certain courses – especially lab science courses, Advanced Placement courses, band, chorus, and the like.

And these leaders have discovered something that may not be obvious at first: By offering a la carte courses for a fee, public schools can generate new revenues from part-time students who have never been a part of Public School Past.

School choice, you see, is a two-way street. Yes, public schools can sometimes lose students who enroll in private schools. But they can also pick up new “homeschool adjacent” students who use scholarship funds to purchase a la carte courses and tutorial services from various providers. (And, who knows, some of these scholarship students may have such a good experience, they’ll elect to become full-time public-school enrollees in future years.)

To their credit, roughly half of Florida’s 67 School Districts have taken steps in the last year to offer a la carte courses to “unbundlers.” The rest would be wise to follow suit.

Moreover, public school leaders would be wise to open up another new funding stream to boost their local district revenues – namely, renting unused school buildings and classroom space to private education start-ups (much in the way that many public schools currently rent unused space on Sundays to start-up churches).

Look, it may seem odd at first for public schools to start serving part-time students – or sharing space with other educators. But the world has changed a lot since Charles Dickens penned his holiday classic, “A Christmas Carol.” And as Florida legislators seek to help local School Districts adjust to the realities of Public School Present, the last thing they ought to be doing is funding the Ghost (Students) of Public School Future.

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William Mattox is the senior director of the Marshall Center for Education Freedom at The James Madison Institute. All four of his children graduated from public high schools.