Is Schwinn A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing For The Ed Department?

Penny Schwinn, President Donald Trump’s pick for the number two spot at the Department of Education, might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Trump recently announced his appointment of Schwinn, former Tennessee education department commissioner, to the position of deputy secretary of education to serve with Secretary-Designate Linda McMahon. Trump stressed Schwinn’s commitment to school choice — an important issue for those on the right trying to revive a greatly atrophied American education system.

But school choice is only one of many pressing issues for conservatives. Insidious ideologies like critical race theory and queer theory — ideologies Trump himself ran on eradicating and is expected to sign an executive order blocking — are still embedded in schools across the country, and Schwinn’s track record on those “culture war” issues is less than impressive.

She admitted it herself. In a 2023 interview with The 74, Schwinn boasted about her ability to sidestep fighting important cultural battles in K-12 education, calling them “distracting.”

After the announcement of her appointment, numerous prominent voices in Tennessee came out against Schwinn, including Dr. Carol Swain, a political commentator and former Vanderbilt law and politics professor, who said, “Mr. President, I hope you will listen to conservative voices in the state who led the battle against critical theory and DEI supplanting traditional educational practices. Whoever recommended Ms. Schwinn hasn’t told you the full story.”

Schwinn holds the endorsements of her former boss Gov. Bill Lee, R-Tenn., and former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fl., while apparently being held in high esteem by education industry publications like The 74 and EducationWeek. But when that is your corner, it draws suspicion from the conservative world.

Schwinn has been criticized for everything from her handling of the coronavirus pandemic to dragging her feet to enforce bans on critical race theory or pornographic material (presented under the guise of “transgender inclusivity”) in schools.

However, amid the criticism, Schwinn did get the backing of at least one prominent and trusted conservative in the education space: Christopher Rufo, who is considered one of the first people to open the floodgates on exposing critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in schools.

There are criticisms circulating on the Right about Penny, so I asked her to respond. She addressed the criticisms directly and outlined her plan to fight CRT, gender cultism, and DEI in America’s schools. Here’s what I learned.

First, Penny did not allow “porn in schools” while she was education commissioner in Tennessee. The opposite is true. Under her tenure, Tennessee strengthened restrictions on explicit materials and Penny worked hard to enforce the law, threatening non-compliant schools with up to $5 million dollars in fines and license revocation for teachers who pushed porn in the classroom. In addition, she implemented a policy that all teachers must publish the full classroom book list and make it available to parents. These are some of the best policies of any state.

Second, Penny did not endorse government “wellbeing checks” during COVID. During the pandemic, one of her staff members wrote a line in a PDF that mentioned “wellbeing checks,” but Penny immediately retracted this language and issued a statement making clear that she opposed any such policy. Penny worked hard to make sure that Tennessee was one of the first states to reopen schools in August 2020. There were zero “wellbeing checks” under her tenure and, as the mother of two adopted kids, she understands the danger of government intrusion into the home.

Multiple conservatives speaking with The Federalist have said that, while they have respect for Rufo, they are baffled by his backing of Schwinn.

“[Schwinn] was an absolute disaster,” Robby Starbuck, a Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker, told The Federalist. “Nice woman, friendly, but did a terrible job when it mattered.”

A Williamson County, Tennessee, chapter of Moms for Liberty also joined the chorus of Tennesseans opposed to Schwinn’s nomination, adding, “Our official position is that we are 100% against Penny Schwinn’s nomination for Dep. Sec. of Education. She is the queen bee of indoctrination and left a trail of destruction in TN filled with rotten curriculum, (Wit and Wisdom) DEI programs, ‘wellness checks,’ masking, CRT and SEL. There was also a $8mil government contract given to her husband’s company. Please write to your senator right now to oppose this nomination!”

Schwinn is an alumna of the Chiefs for Change Future Chiefs leadership development program, where “diversity, equity, and inclusion are core” principles.

For her part, Schwinn has said that her “core values really center on equity, integrity, for all, no matter what.”

According to a 2022 Axios article titled “Understanding Tennessee’s teacher diversity problem,” Schwinn’s education department was lauded for partnering with Vanderbilt University in a U.S. Department of Education-funded research project aimed at “get[ting] more teachers of color into the classroom.”

“There’s a lot of hunger in the system for trying to ensure that there’s equity of opportunity,” Jason Grissom, a Vanderbilt professor and chief investigator in the study, told Axios. “We want to have a high-quality teacher workforce, and a dimension of quality is diversity. And I think people across the state recognize that.”

Schwinn appeared eager to use the results of the study.

“Tennessee teachers have an incredible impact on their students’ success, and our state is already innovating and investing to help recruit teachers to serve in our classrooms,” Schwinn said in a statement, according to the outlet. “We can benefit from additional research that helps inform both policy and practice and supports our state and school districts in recruiting the teacher workforce we need to set all students on a path to success.”

Schwinn’s tenure as commissioner appears full of instances where she let the ideology slide, including perhaps most notably granting a waiver for an English curriculum called “Wit & Wisdom,” which “received failing grades from initial reviewers of the state textbook commission,” according to the Tennessee Lookout.

Conservative groups like Moms for Liberty and Parent Choice Tennessee argued the curriculum taught critical race theory and other subject matter that violated Tennessee law. As the Williamson Herald reported, Schwinn refused to have her department investigate a complaint from the local Moms for Liberty chapter regarding the curriculum because the allegations were from the previous school year.

One of the primary concerns with Schwinn is her response to the coronavirus pandemic, where she implemented “child wellbeing checks,” which could include “wellbeing liaisons” visiting the homes of Tennessee children to check in on them, as The Center Square reported. While the program did require parental permission to speak to children, a refusal from a parent “would be noted in a database,” according to the outlet.

“Penny Schwinn was pro-masking kids, she tried to force child ‘wellbeing checks’ during COVID, she referred to kids as the state’s children and she allowed CRT + pornographic books in schools even after our state banned them,” Starbuck recently said on X. “I hope President Trump will reconsider her nomination.”

While the program was eventually rescinded after backlash from parents and legislators, Rufo is wrong to suggest that Schwinn did not endorse it, and certainly not in something as far removed as a random staff member inserting a line in a PDF.

Schwinn’s statements appeared in press releases about how apparently crucial these checks were.

“Since we know many children have experienced adversity due to the pandemic, child wellbeing checks are a deliberate way all stakeholders in the community can help ensure the needs of our children are met,” Schwinn said in a press release announcing the checks. “I am encouraged by the hard work and dedication of the Task Force and our districts to support kids and their holistic needs.” 

Schwinn’s lackluster performance during the pandemic did not stop at the “wellbeing checks,” however. Apart from her weakness on masking in schools (allowing school districts to decide for themselves), she also caught the ire of a state legislator who, as The Center Square reported, raised concerns about her delayed “rollout of a school reopening plan” and the department’s focus on “social and emotional learning” — one of the buzzwords under which DEI and critical race theory are sometimes implemented.

Schwinn faced a potential “no confidence” vote from legislators, according to reports, and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. — then the mayor of Maury County — called for her resignation in September 2020.

According to Swain and others, Schwinn “never enforced” the state’s ban on “prohibited concepts in curriculum” like critical race theory, and the Tennessee education system was a “train wreck.”

“It scares me that Ms. Schwinn has some powerful conservatives pushing her. I have been contacted about meeting with her,” Swain said. “My position on Ms. Schwinn is simple. We should look at her track record and not at her promises to convert to conservative views on education. Ms. Schwinn inspires zero confidence among the conservatives in Tennessee who have had to deal with her.”

John Rich, a musician and Tennessee conservative who has been active on the issue, said he pointed out specific age-inappropriate materials in a meeting with Schwinn, who “acted as if she had no idea about any of it.”

Although Tennessee did pass a law prohibiting some of these materials, a much more robust law, which would have held teachers and administrators accountable for showing this content to children, was “killed,” Rich noted on X. The law that was actually enacted, he said, does not hold educators accountable and only punishes book publishers, distributors, or vendors who sell to public schools.

“To this day, it is still not illegal for schools in TN to have pornographic material that is accessible to minors,” he wrote. “Penny Schwinn was at the helm when all of this happened.”

The U.S. Department of Education declined to comment.

Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.