Penny Schwinn withdrew her nomination for the second-in-command position at the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). Instead, she will serve as a salaried strategist to education chief Linda McMahon, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. “Penny is a brilliant education mind and I look forward to continuing working with her as my chief strategist to make education great again,” said McMahon in a statement.
For many, the news came as a shock, given that Schwinn had earned the Senate education committee’s nod in June and was nominated by President Trump. She had taken an active role at the department pending Senate confirmation. To others, it was a great relief. MAGA pressure against her nomination built with social media posts and letters to the Senate education committee. This writer also sent detailed information to Senator Cassidy (R-La.) and his committee about Schwinn’s past and why she was a threat to the Trump priorities.
Schwinn succumbed to pressure to step down, yet nothing will change. As McMahon’s chief strategist, she will exert enormous influence over important decisions for the USDE. Schwinn has spent many years in state education departments, while McMahon served as CEO of her family’s business: World Wrestling Entertainment. Of the many bright conservative education minds to whom McMahon could turn, why has she tapped Penny Schwinn, whose career of supporting left-wing policies proves that she is not aligned with Trump’s agenda?
Schwinn is a liberal Berkeley graduate who rose quickly to the top, moving from state to state, seemingly to escape problems of her own making.
She was endorsed by Democrats in 2013 for her election to the Sacramento School Board.
From 2014 to 2016, she worked at Delaware’s Department of Education as the chief of accountability and performance in testing. The Delaware Leadership Project, which was funded partially by the Delaware Department of Education, hired her husband as director of leadership development.
Her tenure there was marked by unmet goals, arguments with board members, and a grievance with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over policies resulting in the resegregation of schools. Reckless and seemingly without a moral compass, Schwinn made poor decisions that turned the schools into chaos with parents.
In 2016, Schwinn moved to Texas, where she was deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) overseeing testing and academic programs, including special education. She awarded a $4.4-million contract to SPEDx, a Georgia software startup, without competitive bidding. The TEA canceled the contract due to improprieties on the agency’s part in protecting personally identifiable student information. The cancelation meant forfeiture of $2.2 million that had already been paid to SPEDx. A state audit found that Schwinn had somehow forgotten to disclose her professional development training from the person who became the subcontractor on the special education contract.
But that was not the end of the Schwinn SPEDx fiasco. The Houston Chronicle reported, “The U.S. Department of Education has asked Texas to repay more than $2.5 million after state auditors found the agency violated purchasing rules when it awarded a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract to a group tasked with collecting data about special education students.” That Schwinn debacle — $2.2 million plus $2.5 million — cost Texas taxpayers $4.7 million.
While at TEA, Schwinn worked with radical pro-abortion groups and transgender educators for the development of sexual health education standards.
In 2018, Schwinn was in Chiefs for Change, which touts DIE as a core principle and is a member of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition.
Less than two years after joining the TEA and with ongoing fights with angry parents over the sexual health education standards, Schwinn left and went to Tennessee. Despite his familiarity with the Texas state audit, Republican governor Bill Lee appointed Schwinn in 2019 as the state’s education commissioner.
She spearheaded two initiatives: a reading program and a federal apprentice program to train teachers. Her tenure again was marked by controversy, with high turnover in the education department and a no-bid contract to a company charged with managing the state’s incoming pilot voucher program. State lawmakers frequently complained that she launched new initiatives without appropriate legislative input, review, or approval.
She strategized with Lee to arrange funding for school choice — Education Savings Accounts (ESA). Circumventing legal battles that delayed funding, Schwinn approved a no-bid contract with Florida-based ClassWallet and used Career Ladder funds for teacher salaries to implement the ESA. Tennessee lawmakers were enraged; the Legislature had budgeted only $771,300 for that year’s voucher program, but the contract was for $6.3 million.
She was slow to reopen schools after the pandemic and, using federal funds, imposed a child wellness check with monthly home visits that posed a threat to parental and privacy rights, contrary to the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the Trump administration.
After a public furor, Schwinn walked back her plan and apologized to state lawmakers who were having to deal with outraged families.
Schwinn faced a potential “no confidence” vote from legislators, and some called for her resignation.
Ignoring once again a conflict of interest, in 2021, Schwinn signed an $8-million contract with TNTP Inc., a New York-based company, as part of Tennessee’s reading initiative, for whom her husband worked.
Schwinn ran afoul of parents’ groups, including Moms for Liberty Tennessee and Parents Choice Tennessee, when she issued waivers to schools allowing them to teach Wit and Wisdom in violation of a Tennessee ban on the teaching of Critical Race Theory. The curriculum also incorporates Transformative Social and Emotional Learning and pornographic images.
In 2023, Schwinn announced her resignation as Tennessee education commissioner while acknowledging that culture war battles over race and sex had gotten in the way of her agenda.
Schwinn has a long history of ignoring parents and cultural issues. Why should anyone believe she now will listen to parents and carry out Trump’s mission to abolish DIE and Critical Race Theory in American schools, along with dismantling the USDE?
Schwinn’s career shows a pattern of deceit and ignoring the rules to accommodate her agenda. She is skilled enough to craft deceptive bureaucratic regulations that could undermine the shutdown of the Department of Education.
Schwinn’s worldview is clearly antithetical to Trump’s America First mission. She is not going to change.
Carole Hornsby Haynes is an education policy analyst, curriculum adviser, historian, and classical pianist. www.drcarolehhaynes.com
Image: jarmoluk via Pixabay, Pixabay License.