About the Candidate
Meet Eric Schwalbach
30 years. One classroom. Thousands of students. A calling that never stopped.
The Origin
He knows what it means to need a teacher who doesn’t give up.
Eric Schwalbach grew up understanding hardship from the inside. Raised by a single mother after his father left, he found himself drifting in ninth grade — a 1.3 GPA and a suspension from the basketball team. It wasn’t a politician or a program that turned things around. It was a teacher who refused to give up on him.
That experience didn’t just change his life. It became his life’s work. Since 1996, Eric has taught math and coached sports at every level of Florida’s public school system — elementary, middle, and high school. He has mentored hundreds of athletes, many of whom earned college scholarships. He coached as a volunteer, refusing the stipend so the kids could have more support.
He has walked the full spectrum of the Florida student experience. He has taught the highest performers and the most at-risk. He has opened his own home to students in crisis and fought in Tallahassee and at board meetings for teachers who were afraid to speak up themselves.
Now it is time to take that fight to the board room itself.
By the Numbers
Education
Bachelor’s Degree in Education. Licensed in multiple areas including finance, mortgage, and real estate — because he has always made sure he could teach his students how the real world works.
“They’ll never care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
— Eric Schwalbach, recognized High Impact Teacher, Orange County Public Schools
Faith & Values
Freedom of religion — not freedom from religion.
Eric Schwalbach is a man of faith. That faith is not a campaign strategy — it is the foundation of who he is. It is why he coached as a volunteer when he could have kept the stipend. It is why he opened his home to a ninth-grade student raising a newborn baby. It is why he shows up, every single day, for the children in front of him.
Eric believes that Lake County’s conservative community deserves representation that reflects its values — values of hard work, personal responsibility, love of neighbor, and the belief that every child is made with purpose and potential. He stands firmly for freedom of religion in the public square, not freedom from religion.
His faith is visible not in what he says, but in what he has done — 30 years of proving that a teacher who truly cares can change the trajectory of a life.
The Record
30 years of showing up.
Eric has not managed education from the outside. He has lived it, from a single-parent household in ninth grade to a High Impact Teacher award, from chalkboards in 1996 to fighting for teacher dignity today.
1996
Enters the Classroom
Begins teaching with year-round schools and chalkboards, at elementary and middle schools in West Orange County, Florida.
Early 2000s
Coaching at Multiple Levels
Coaches sports at Evans and West Orange High Schools as a volunteer, refusing stipends so other teachers could receive them and kids could have more support.
Mid-Career
High Impact Teacher Recognition
Recognized by Orange County Public Schools as a High Impact Teacher — ranked in the top 10–20% of Florida math educators on student growth metrics for consecutive years.
Ongoing
Opens His Home to Students in Crisis
Took in a ninth-grade student and his newborn baby to help raise them. Hosts students from low-income situations, serving as a positive paternal influence for those without fathers in the home.
2018
First School Board Campaign
Runs for Orange County School Board District 7, advancing through the primary. The issues he ran on — teacher pay, discipline, anti-testing overreach — have only grown more urgent since.
2026
Running for Lake County District 1
Still in the classroom. Still coaching. Still fighting. Now bringing 30 years of frontline experience to the board that makes decisions for Lake County’s 48,000 students.
Why Eric. Why Now.
The board needs a voice from inside the room.
Not one sitting member of the Lake County School Board is an active classroom teacher. They make decisions about teachers and students every month — without a single person at the table who still does it.
The Classroom
“The board makes decisions about teachers every month. Shouldn’t one of them be one?”
The Teachers
“A classroom where teachers can’t teach isn’t a classroom. It’s a holding room. We can do better.”
The Children
“I’m not looking for a political career. I already have a calling. And these children deserve someone answering it.”
Ready to stand with Eric?
Every door knocked, every sign posted, every dollar raised brings a teacher’s voice closer to the board room.