Reading Champion Penny Schwinn Expected to Keep Ed. Dept. Focused on Achievement
But if confirmed as deputy secretary, she could find herself in culture war conflicts she’s previously sidestepped.

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When Penny Schwinn resigned as Tennessee’s education chief in 2023, she acknowledged that culture war battles over race and gender had interfered with efforts to catch students up after the pandemic.
“I see it as extraneous politics, and my job is to educate kids,” she told The 74 at the time.
Now she’s up for the second highest education post in the Trump administration, and advocates hope she’ll keep the spotlight on student achievement, particularly literacy — even as the new president promises to amp up conflicts she’s previously sidestepped.
Already, questions about her conservative bonafides prompted an unusual defense on X Tuesday from right-wing activist Chris Rufo. Rufo said he met with members of Trump’s education team Monday and asked Schwinn to address “criticisms circulating on the Right” about her tenure in Tennessee. In an attempt to shore up support for the nominee, he posted that she vowed to “shut down the terrible programs at the Department of Education, fight critical race theory, gender cultism, and DEI in America’s schools, and support new initiatives on school choice and classical education.”
Among supporters, Schwinn is primarily known for pushing the academic needle forward following the devastating effects of pandemic lockdowns in Tennessee. As commissioner under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, she used COVID relief funds to launch a statewide tutoring program and has been credited with revamping instruction to incorporate the science of reading.
“This gives me hope that the Trump Administration wants to play a constructive role in addressing learning loss and improving our schools,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Unlike Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to lead the department, Schwinn has been a teacher and also held top education positions in Delaware and Texas. Supporters call her a smart pick at a time when student performance hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic.
Jim Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and served in the education department during the first Trump administration, called her “hardworking, very well-informed and savvy,” and said her experience would be a “complement to Linda McMahon’s strengths.”
Still, some have their doubts. Democrats dislike her strong support for charter schools, while some Republicans pointed to a pandemic plan to conduct well-being checks on children in their homes as an example of government overreach.
Schwinn directed an interview request to a department spokesperson, who said she wouldn’t be available to reporters prior to her confirmation.
Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a Georgetown University think tank, called Schwinn a “pragmatic Republican” who was able to navigate “relationships with deep-red state leaders frequently more interested in leveraging education for political purposes than improving opportunities and outcomes for students.”
“She supports school choice,” he said. “But she recognizes that school choice policies should include creating high-quality choices in public education — where 90% of the nation’s students attend school.”
Those who think Trump is serious about closing the Education Department might find themselves disappointed, Toch added. He said it’s unlikely Schwinn would be interested in the job if that was the objective.
Among many positions she’s held since leaving her post as commissioner, Schwinn has served as an unpaid fellow for FutureEd. In late 2023, she participated in a webinar by the organization, calling her work in Tennessee addressing stagnant reading scores “a moral imperative.”
The state requires districts to screen students for reading difficulties and use a phonics-based curriculum. After it passed a literacy law in 2021, roughly 30,000 teachers received summer training in the science of reading.
Amid pushback, Schwinn implemented follow-up legislation that requires third graders to meet state reading expectations or risk being held back. Facing opposition from parents and advocates, Gov. Lee later softened the requirement to let parents and educators decide whether students should be retained.
Recent state test data shows Tennessee students continue to make gains. Thirty-eight percent of students met expectations in reading last school year, continuing to exceed the pre-pandemic level of 34%.

“Superintendents are celebrating growth,” said Sonya Thomas, executive director of Nashville PROPEL, a parent advocacy group focused on literacy. “That wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t have Penny pushing school districts to change the way that they were delivering literacy instruction.”
Results of the state’s tutoring effort, meanwhile, have been mixed. In the Nashville district, tutoring accounted for only a small increase in reading scores and had no effect on math performance, one study found.
‘Questionable behaviors’
Critics of Schwinn’s record in Texas and Tennessee point to problematic state contracts and said she doesn’t exemplify Trump’s promises to downsize government and protect parental rights.
While she was a deputy under Commissioner Mike Morath from 2016 to 2019, the Texas Education Agency signed a $4.4 million, no-bid contract with SPEDx, a Georgia software startup, despite Schwinn having a “professional relationship” with someone at the company, according to a state audit. With the goal of improving services, the agency gave the company records on hundreds of special education students for analysis without parents’ consent.
The state ultimately canceled the contract, lost $2 million and had to pay another $200,000 to a whistleblower who was fired after filing a complaint about the deal. Citing “questionable behaviors,” a legislative committee on special education resurfaced the matter in 2023, calling it an effort to “data-mine” private student information. In Tennessee, lawmakers questioned another no-bid contract for the state’s voucher program.
Regarding SPEDx, Schwinn said at the time that she “deeply believed” the company was the only one offering the service, and in Tennessee, she said she was in a rush to roll out the state’s voucher program when she granted the contract to ClassWallet without seeking other proposals.
Local and national homeschool advocates attacked a state plan, never executed, to check in on kids during pandemic school closures. “Our children were where they had always been. Homeschools were not closed down,” said Tiffany Boyd, who runs Free Your Children, a Christian homeschool organization. “We thought that she was a threat to Tennessee then. We now think that she’s a threat to the entire United States.”
But the idea wasn’t popular with public school parents either. Tennessee Rep. Mark White, a Republican, was among the lawmakers who fielded complaints from those who worried officials would second-guess their parenting decisions.
Even though the state issued a press release announcing “monthly child well-being calls,” Schwinn told Rufo she never endorsed the plan, according to his tweet. About a week after unveiling it, she acknowledged that she “missed the mark on communication” and said there was no “big brother intent.”
Despite the problems, White has no reservations about Schwinn joining the Trump administration. In an email to The 74, he said she had his “complete endorsement” and is “grateful that Tennessee has a direct connection with the federal Department of Education.”
For someone whose resume has only grown over the past 18 months, joining the administration could be limiting. Schwinn holds high-level positions with an investment firm and a political consulting agency, and had a brief stint at the University of Florida. In May, she told The 74 in an email that she was working to launch a nonprofit focused on “urgency around student outcomes.” She’s also listed as a speaker for the conservative Heritage Foundation’s program to train future school board members.
As deputy, “she will help improve the implementation” of the policies Trump and McMahon push for, said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. He noted her “good reputation,” but said she “isn’t likely to change the direction” of the department.
But with National Assessment of Educational Progress scores set for release next week — and many predicting poor results — Toch said her background will be valuable.
“The administration is going to have to address them. Blaming the Biden administration is going to work for only so long,” he said. “Given Schwinn’s experience and expertise, she’s going to have a voice … on education issues.”
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