Long before Khanh-Lien Banko was leading initiatives in Alachua County and statewide to improve our children's education she was the daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant and a Vietnam veteran. Her life as an accountant and small business owner took on a new passion when she had her children, all of whom attend Alachua County Public Schools.

Khanh-Lien Banko has since spearheaded many of the biggest education initiatives in Alachua County. Her volunteer work was recognized by the Florida Department of Education, naming her 2018-19 Volunteer of the Year for the state of Florida.

Alachua County Council of PTA's

Her work for our schools started as a founder of the Alachua County Council of PTA's, a county wide organization that works with all of our school Parent Teacher Associations's to support parents and teachers in our school system.

Half-Cent for Schools

During Khanh-Lien Banko's time as president she worked to visit all of our Alachua County Schools and to speak with local school teachers and administrators. Here she saw firsthand the impact of our school facilities crisis. She saw broken AC's, molding lunch rooms, and classrooms falling apart. This lead Khanh-Lien to spearhead the "Half-Cent for Schools" initiative with a coalition of partners, which was on the ballot in 2018 and passed with 68% of the vote.

Parents Against Corporate Takeovers

When a large for-profit charter school threatened to come to Alachua County, permanently altering our local schools, Khanh-Lien co-founded "Parents Against Corporate Takeovers" to push against it. She helped educate parents on the difference between our local charters and the big for profit charter school looking to settle in Alachua County. They were successful in pushing back, getting Charter Schools USA to withdraw their application in early 2018.

Alachua County’s Khanh-Lien Banko was named one of the top school volunteers by the state and was given the 2018-19 Outstanding School Volunteer award by the Florida Department of Education.

“It was really overwhelming,” Banko said.

Sue Legg, PACT chair and president of the Alachua County League of Women Voters, founded the group with Khanh-Lien Banko, Alachua County PTA president. The committee aims to educate the public about the differences between local charter schools and those managed by for-profit corporations, she said.

With the recent loss of employees due to COVID and listening to the last several School Board meetings there continues to be questions about execution of protocols and about notifications, our school district needs to provide assurance that safety measures are being followed. Emotions and anxiety continue to run high and misinformation continues to be an issue. Right now, as a parent, I feel in my gut that we need to stay home and start with distance learning.