A funny thing happened on the way to closing the U.S. Department of Education

Penny Schwinn’s work in high-level administrative posts in Tennessee and elsewhere has infuriated both the orthodox left and right. She may be just what the embattled U.S. Department of Education needs at this moment. Schwinn is shown testifying at the House Education Committee on Capitol Hill on July 23, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The Trump administration continued its head-scratching appointments by anointing billionaire Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education — even though he had campaigned on a pledge to abolish the department. The president has expressed his hope that McMahon would eventually “put herself out of a job.”

She has been part of the president’s inner political circle, but is best known as president and co-founder, with her husband, of World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon used to be a wrestler herself. Her only K-12 experience was a brief stint on the Connecticut Board of Education, although she feels wrestling showed her what all students should learn about respect, leadership and such. 

But then – surprise! – the deputy education secretary spot went to Penny Schwinn, who is far more famous to the likes of us education writers. Schwinn’s deep, impressive bona fides include becoming a teacher through Teach for America, followed by service as a classroom history teacher, school principal and then a swift ride up high-level administrative posts in various states including Texas. In 2019, at 43, she became Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education.

In Education Next’s extended interview, Schwinn emphasizes that educators must aim every single decision not merely toward achievement, but toward the best interests of kids. This “North Star” helps her to sift through irrelevant political chaff so she can stay with her agenda even in the face of constant opposition. 

“That is always going to be personal and emotional; however, we must find a way to engage in hard conversations without taking them personally,” she said. 

I’m hard pressed to think of another current politician or education leader with such credible dedication to kids, no matter what. 

Schwinn’s biggest claim to fame was an all-hands-on-deck initiative designed to shift reading instruction from the terrible 3-cueing system that teaches kids to guess words, to one that is science-based. At the time, COVID raged. But for her, reading is a “nonnegotiable goal.” In a mere two years, Tennessee’s third graders improved by eight percentage points on their state reading assessment. The state has just under 1 million K-12 students, with 74,000 third graders, so eight points is a big average jump for a cohort that size. 

Furthermore, the just released 2022 NAEPs showed Tennessee with a slight increase while most all other states’ results declined to varying degrees. (Rhode Island’s scores declined by three percentage points.) Tennessee also did well in math, which can be a side benefit of helping kids unpack word problems and written directions.

When first appointed, Schwinn turned to Carey Wright, the education commissioner who pulled off what is known as the “Mississippi miracle,” a show-stopping leap from Mississippi’s frequent dead last ranking to becoming the only state that didn’t tank in the 2019 national NAEP reading test.

Last summer, Wright and Schwinn wrote an op-ed for The74 begging political leaders to listen to what the research is saying about learning, especially reading. They note that in the late 1990s, the feds poured $9 billion into excellent research, which then went largely ignored. Their dedication to data-driven decisions means Schwinn wants to beef up federal research, not shut it down. (Yes, I know the feds are angling to shutter the Department of Education. But why would she take the job if that were really the goal?)

What really wins my heart are leaders who can change their minds with the right evidence and articulate reasons to make the change. 

For example, in 2021, true to the Republican playbook, the Tennessee Legislature passed a law mandating holding back third graders who did not pass a reading proficiency test. Without apparent appetite, Schwinn acknowledged it was her job to implement state laws. While punishing third graders did boost scores in some states, the long-term effects of removing 9-year-olds from their age and friend cohort is almost never good. Schwin did not fight the law, but her “Reading 360” initiative did reduce the vast numbers of retained kids. It opened many pathways to the fourth grade including intensive tutoring, after-school and summer reading camps, allowing families to agree to intervention during fourth grade, and more. 

Also, to help kids from the educational get-go, she established the only national teacher apprenticeship program designed to drag higher education’s butt into the 21st century with preparation driven by current research and contemporary children. 

Mind you, Schwinn is far from everyone’s cup of tea. She’s a Republican. But that’s hard to tell from the totality of her actions. Her work has infuriated both the orthodox left and right. 

Eventually, for example, her efforts to sidestep the culture wars proved to be too obstructive to stay focused on the work. In 2023, Tennessee passed a law designed to scrub curricula of information about race and gender. Again, Schwinn said she’d honor state law. But no hardliner, her directive to the field was to “limit” such discussions, enraging culture warriors on both sides of the aisle. In the end, her efforts got swallowed up in those unproductive battles, so she quit that summer. 

Did the president’s vetters know what they were getting into? The two appointments to the federal DOE seem like a contradiction in terms — a wrecking ball and a design-build contractor. But Schwinn doesn’t seem like the kind of woman to put her North Star away, so she must have been convinced she could do real work. 

Of course, we’ll see. The best interests of the kids could use a true champion. Good luck, Deputy.