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Penny Schwinn, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 role at the U.S. Department of Education, said she agrees with his push to dismantle the department and that states are better suited to solve long-standing education problems than Washington.
Schwinn is a former state schools chief in Tennessee who also served in a top role in the Texas Education Agency. She also founded a charter school and served as a district administrator and school board member. Many education advocates hope she will bring a new focus on academics to the Education Department after months of chaos marked by sweeping executive orders, deep cuts to grant programs, layoffs, and lawsuits seeking to block those actions.
Her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions served as a referendum of sorts on the Trump administration’s education agenda. If confirmed, Schwinn would be in a position to give more shape to that agenda. She said the government owes it to students to make sure struggling schools improve, but also said money spent on federal operations could do more good in states. While cultural conservatives have raised doubts about her, Schwinn promised she was in alignment with Trump’s priorities.
Democratic senators pressed Schwinn and Kimberly Richey, the nominee to serve as assistant secretary for civil rights, on how the department could carry out its duties with a fraction of the staff it previously had and whether they would look out for the interests of all students, including LGBTQ students, students of color, and those with disabilities.
Republicans, in turn, asked the nominees to expound on the importance of school choice, combatting antisemitism, and keeping trangender athletes out of girls’ sports.
Schwinn told the committee Trump chose her for the job because “he wanted a strong, outcomes-oriented, conservative education leader who shared his vision to make the United States the number one country in the world related to student outcomes.”
Schwinn pointed to her work in Tennessee, where she drew praise for a comprehensive reading instruction reform project and directing pandemic relief funds to help bridge learning loss, including establishing a new summer learning camp program that has yielded reading and math gains.
“When states are empowered, we see progress,” she said, describing work she carried out when Joe Biden was president. “In Tennessee, we achieved real outcomes because we had the flexibility to tailor solutions. Rather than being bound by rigid funding categories, we prioritized what mattered most for our students, and it worked.”
In addition, Schwinn cast Trump’s directive to abolish the Education Department as a call to “explore all the opportunities and options around what is in the best interest of students, including shuttering the Department of Education.”
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, asked one of the few questions that focused on academics. She cited a report from the Government Accountability Office that found few states had compliant improvement plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act. How would Schwinn ensure adequate oversight and review so that struggling schools improve?
“There must be a commitment to ensuring that our most struggling schools improve, because our students deserve that,” Schwinn replied, adding that she would study the department’s internal operations to ensure “we have the most efficient practices in place and that we meet our obligations” to Congress.
New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, described the Trump administration as “abdicating” its responsibility to education and fostering “chaos” at the department. She asked Schwinn, from her perspective as a former state chief, if abrupt funding cuts — such as those to mental health grants — would help or hurt students.
Schwinn said the discontinued mental health grants would be rebid and that she would work with Congress “to ensure that what you have passed is what is actually implemented.”
Indiana Sen. Jim Banks, a Republican, described the Education Department as a “total failure” and asked Schwinn exactly how she would approach dismantling it.
“The department is a building with people in it,” Schwinn said. “What people actually care about is the laws that you all pass and the funding you all appropriate. We need to make sure that those two things are rock solid … and then allow states to figure out the best way to implement that to achieve outcomes for their kids.”
Schwinn said money that currently covers federal operations could help more students get high-dosage tutoring or take Advanced Placement classes.
Trump’s most recent budget proposal cuts $6 billion from federal K-12 education spending and slashes money that would go to the states, while promising more flexibility in how to spend that smaller pot of money.
Schwinn’s approach to diversity drew conservative opposition
Back in Tennessee, Schwinn often riled conservatives, particularly among an ascendant right flank of a party increasingly interested in culture war issues that now dominate the Tennessee General Assembly.
In 2020, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, called for Schwinn’s resignation after the Tennessee Department of Education released guidance to school districts for conducting “child well-being checks” at family homes during pandemic school closures. The program was never implemented after conservative lawmakers balked at what they saw as government overreach.
Right wing advocacy group Tennessee Stands called Schwinn an “incredibly terrible pick” earlier this year. Conservative Tennessee media personalities have sharply criticized the nomination over Schwinn’s previous support of diversity efforts in educator hiring, in addition to fights over reading curriculum with groups like Moms for Liberty.
After stepping down in 2023, Schwinn told The 74 that fights over gender and race were “extraneous politics.” But those issues have come to dominate education policy in the Trump administration.
Despite her Tennessee ties, the state’s U.S. Senate delegation has been quiet on her nomination. Neither Sen. Bill Hagerty nor Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who has soft-launched a bid for governor in the state, responded to Chalkbeat questions regarding their views on Schwinn’s nomination.
Committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, asked if she was aligned with Trump’s agenda to “make sure that federal funding does not support violations of federal civil rights protections, including the use of divisive race-based ideology, the promotion of leftist ideology, and undermining parental rights.”
Schwinn cited laws passed in Tennessee to restrict the teaching of so-called divisive concepts and to limit “inappropriate” books in classrooms and school libraries.
“My responsibility was to implement the laws as passed, something that I’m very, very committed to,” she said. “And those laws were in alignment with President Trump’s agenda and the executive orders that have been put out.”
Since leaving her job in Tennessee, Schwinn served briefly in a leadership role at the University of Florida. Her ethics disclosure form describes roles she held with a range of education, lobbying, and consulting firms. Schwinn said she would resign these roles if confirmed, the Tennessee Lookout reported.
According to Florida business filings, Schwinn also had plans to start an education consulting business with former Palm Beach County superintendent Donald Fennoy. The 74 reported that Schwinn and Fennoy filed organizing documents after Schwinn was nominated and filed paperwork to dissolve the company just last week. The venture, New Horizon BluePrint Group, was not included on Schwinn’s ethics disclosure.
The Senate education committee voted along party lines last month to send North Dakota Superintendent Kirsten Baesler to the full Senate for consideration as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education.
Chalkbeat Tennessee bureau chief Melissa Brown contributed.
Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.
