Let's Take a Peek Behind the Curtain

“I told her the world was full of nice people. I'd have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.”
― Jim Thompson, A Hell of a Woman

I don't think we ever truly appreciated what we had in Penny Schwinn when she served as Tennessee's Commissioner of Education.

At first blush, dismissing her as just another grifter drifting from job to job collecting paychecks like a Mookie Betts collects home runs is an easy narrative to embrace. But she is so much more. 

Each check becomes a little larger than the last. Starting as a TFA corp member in Baltimore she quickly drifted back to Cali, where she went from department head to school board member to charter school founder in under 5 years.

Then back to the East Coast to take a six-figure job with the Maryland DOE before moving to Texas for a similar position with their DOE. Heck, for most of that time, she was drawing a paycheck from both coasts. That ain't easy. 

Miraculously she ends up on Tennessee's shores, where she wreaked havoc for 4 years before the Governor had to cut strings.

I know, I know, she resigned of her own volition, but do you really believe she did so without a little urging from the nationally recognized RINO?

In her wake, she left a series of controversies and questionable financial activities. The beauty of Ms Schwinn was her selflessness, not only did she ensure she got paid, but also made sure there was a paycheck with her husband's name on it from one of the many organizations she did business with.

As her tenure with the TNDOE came to an end, she bought a $1.8 million mansion in Nashville and secured a $375K gig with the University of Florida that allowed her to work remotely. That gig is separate from her multiple speaking engagements. Sweet!

I mean, you look objectively at her entire career and you can't help but be impressed. She entered a field where practitioners are chronically underpaid and turned it into an ATM. No small feat.

Unfortunately, everything comes with an expiration date and Schwinn's may be drawing closer.

About a month ago, University of Florida President Ben Sasse announced that he would be stepping down as university president to attend to his wife's health challenges. That led to folks looking closer at his hiring practices and getting a dose of sticker shock.

The Alligator, the University's student paper, reports that Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

In one year, spending in the president's office grew from $5.6 million to $17.3 million.

The paper goes on to report:

A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.

Sasse’s consulting contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees. The university also declined to clarify specific duties carried out by Sasse’s ex-Senate staff, several of whom were salaried as presidential advisers.

The paper lists numerous "friends" who benefited from Sasse's generosity, including Tennessee's former darling:

Outside of his Senate staff, Sasse also tapped former Republican Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn as UF’s inaugural vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelor programs. Schwinn, with a starting salary of $367,500, worked the newly-created position from her $1 million home in Nashville, Tennessee.

The paper and I may quote slightly different figures, but we paint the same picture.

Schwinn wasn't alone in her remote work, all but one of Sasse’s political appointees worked for UF outside of Florida and commuted to Gainesville on the university’s dollar when needed — a move reflected in his office’s travel expenses.

Per the student paper, "In Sasse’s first full fiscal year at the university’s helm, travel expenses for the president’s office soared to $633,000 — over 20 times higher than Fuchs’ annual average of $28,000. Sasse spent more on travel in his 17 months at UF than Fuchs’ entire eight-year tenure."

That sounds familiar, remember while employed at the TNDOE, Schwinn was fond of traveling on the Tennessee taxpayer's dime.

Here's some more fat to chew on. Upon arriving at UF, Sasse entered into a $4.7 million contract with McKinsey and Company. The firm carries prestige as one of the “big three” management consulting firms but is notoriously secretive about its dealings and shielded its work from public view using records laws protecting trade secrets.

Beyond the $4.7 million contract, Sasse hired three former McKinsey consultants as full-time employees in his office, with salaries ranging from $150,000 to $200,000, according to university records.

Right now, you might be thinking, where do I know that name from?

You may recall the company's relationship with Governor Lee. back in 2019, he gave them a $1.5 million no-bid contractto create a report on the state's COVID response and then deemed that the report shouldn't be shared with Tennesseans, even though it was a taxpayer-paid report. Eventually, after a lawsuit was filed, the report was released.

McKinsey's services have also made headlines because of the state's legal action against the firm over claims about its role in the opioid epidemic. In April of 2021, Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced that Tennessee would receive $15.2 million from a larger $573 million settlement with McKinsey, targeted for its role in helping opioid companies promote their drugs.

Here's another series of relationships you should be aware of as a Tennessee taxpayer.

Sasse is a long-time friend of the Bush family, having worked for both George and Jeb.

Penny Schwinn has long been a member of Chief's for Change, a non-profit education think tank founded by Jeb Bush.

Tennessee's current Commissioner of Education, Lizzette Reynolds, is a long-term family friend of the Bushes. Having worked for both George and Jeb.

Sometimes it all just sounds so familiar.

No word yet about what's next for Tennessee's deposed education commissioner. online political news magazine The Hillis reporting that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing the state university system to look deeper into Sasse's spending.

“We take the stewardship of state funds very seriously and have already been in discussions with leadership at the university and with the Board of Governors to look into the matter,” Bryan Griffin, a communications director for DeSantis, said in an emailed statement sent Thursday to The Hill.

Here are some fun facts. Alan Levine sits on that Board of Governors. The same Alan Levine serves on the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) and Tennessee's Public Charter School Commission. Levine is a long-term Bush dude, having served as the former Florida Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff and senior health policy advisor. 

The ripples only grow wider. Maybe Tennessee and Florida could conduct a joint investigation. 

Talk is in the air that Florida's Governor is interested in recouping some of those monies spent with the out-of-towners. If only Tennessee's was. 

Whispers around the state keep linking Schwinn with long-term Governor Lee advisors turned private lobbyist Brent Easley in a business deal. Nobody quite knows what's afoot, but the two now share separate offices in the same building. Maybe a coincidence.

Right now Easley’s pal Blake Harris, who also works out of the building, is busy licking his wounds from recent election primaries. He was a key player in Courtney Johnson's bid to unseat US House Rep Andy Ogles. Ogles easily dismissed Johnson's challenge. 

Whatever happens, I'm sure it won't be ordinary. But that's our extraordinary former education commissioner. 

- - -

Last week I mentioned the national push to get states to ban cell phones in schools. This week education writer, and professional educator Peter Greene weighs in on the subject.

Greene is mostly favorable to the idea of removing phones from schools but is leery of legislation banning them. He points out that major opposition will likely come from parents. 

For parents who balk at ever letting their children out of their sight or touch or control, cellphones are just the thing to make sure that contact is maintained and that you can check up in at any moment. In all fairness, it's not just the helicopter parents. Families with three jobs and one car, families with big logistical challenges, families dealing with emergent situations--they all benefit from having the child just a click away.

And nowadays, the specter of various school crises are part of the picture. What if there's a school shooter and my child doesn't have a phone? What if Something Is Going On and the school doesn't contact me quickly enough?

Parents are likely to push back hard--harder than the students--against cellphone restrictions.

I agree with Greene about parent opposition, but not for the reasons outlined by the writer. Nothing to do with any helicopter parenting. 

We were slow to supply our kids with phones, for all the familiar reasons, but Christmas in 7th grade felt like the appropriate time to make the jump. To their credit, the kids have proven the decision to be the right one. 

People of my generation like to wax grandiosely about their childhoods. "We'd disappear for hours", they'll fondly recall, "Our parents never knew where we where or what what we were doing."

True, but while I'm no fan of Life360, or any of those other child trackers, let's be honest, we were often where we shouldn't have been doing things we shouldn't be doing. 

And yes we all turned out wonderful, at least those of us who made it out of those hours of anonymity. Not all of us did. 

A little text here and there allows us to be present but not intrusive. 

Phones allow me to work and still be present in my child's life.

I like to think that a simple "I love you" text in the middle of the day often serves to alter the trajectory of a troubling day. Please don't take that as an invite to do a study, because I don't need the data. 

In his later middle school, I sent my son to school with the instructions that if the day is turning south, and you think you are on the cusp of making a bad decision, text me, and I'll come pick you up, no questions asked. 

He only used that option a handful of times, and usually, all it took was a few minutes of talking in the car in the parking lot. I shudder when I think of the possible consequences if this option was not available. 

Life is so busy for all of us, that a change in plans requires sudden notice. A quick text allows for that. 

Sometimes I may be running late to pick up a child, and a text allows for reassurance. 

To portray phones as a privilege is a misnomer. They are a tool that makes family life just a little easier. 

I admit, I rarely use phones in a disciplinary manner. It never felt effective. My son has always been baffled by why you would take away something totally removed from the infraction. Both kids understood that the punishment was temporary, and they knew they could wait us out. Taking a phone was never an effective strategy and did more to shut down communication than phone usage. 

But isn't it always like that when you try and ban stuff? Books, music, phones - outcomes vary little. 

Furthermore, it always seemed more of a punishment for me than it did for them. 

That said, I understand the challenge of overcoming distractions created by the ubiquitous use of phones. Parameters do need to be placed on in-school usage. 

Like I Greene, I argue:

At the other end of the issue is the actual specific issue of implementing the policy in the classroom.

There are lots of great ideas out there for collecting and managing all the cellphones, but there is still going to come that moment--

You are teaching class. You see that a student still has their phone. You ask them to hand it in (put it in the box, whatever). They say no. Now what do you do?

Stop class to have a battle of wills? Shrug and let it go? Send the student out of the room? Call the office? Call home later? This is different from a simple classroom management issue of focus, of trying to get the student attention directed at what they are supposed to do rather than what they are not. It's not simply a behavior thing--it's a moment in which you are trying to confiscate (not just put away) an object (a very expensive object) that they have in their possession.

Like so many other policies, this one dies the moment building administration says "Well, what do you want us to do about it?"

There is a huge amount of room, a Grand Canyon's amount, to argue about just how dangerous or destabilizing cellphones actually are for the mental health of young people. But I think you'd find general agreement that teaching would be a bit easier if students were not attached to their phones all day.

But cellphone bans run the risk of being one more of those moments when leaders say, "Well, we will solve this social issue by passing a law or policy and then just let teachers take care of it." Done poorly, it's one more unfunded mandate for education, except instead of sucking up money, it will suck up time and attention. 

At the least, you run the risk of turning a model student into a disruption.

I know, it is hard to believe that high-performing students enjoy checking their phones periodically throughout the day, but they exist in large numbers. Since they follow every other rule, why you risk making them a discipline issue because of a blanket ban. 

My daughter is a prime example. She, a high school sophomore, would take a ban as further evidence that administrators don't trust her to manage her time, despite her regularly proving them wrong.  

Do we really believe that the distracted and underperforming student transfixed by their phone will suddenly morph into a dedicated fully engaged slave to the grindstone simply through the removal of their electronic device? 

Yeah...let me talk to you about this bridge I own in Arizona. 

Since we like to brag about "every student known" maybe we could use cell phones as a positive tool for performance. You know, maintain your grades, don't be a distraction, and we won't pester you about your phone. 

Because that's why we are doing this right? None of it is about adult control. Too why not use the carrot instead of the stick. 

Unfortunately, I've discovered it's almost always about control. 

 - - -

Along the same lines is recent state legislation that requires teachers to issue grades that arguably reflect a student's earned grade versus that previous policy of not assigning a student a grade of less than a 50.  Proponents argue that if a student "does zero work, they should get a zero grade."

That sounds great when you are at the bar bemoaning to your friends the current lack of student work ethic, and performance trophies while ordering your fourth tequila and soda. 

The reality is, if a student is doing "zero work" there is likely a deeper issue at play, and since we believe in "every student known", we should probably work to figure that issue out. 

For example, if I'm regularly getting my ass beat at home, I'm probably tired when I get to school and out of sorts as well. My priority is also likely focused on how not to get my ass beat as opposed to completing my History of Civilization homework. It may sound like I'm being a little cavalier here, but trust me I'm anything but. 

So during the time I'm getting beat at home, I earn a couple zeroes. The person beating my ass gets tossed from the house after a couple of months, and viola, my work ethic suddenly increases. But at this point, I realize that to get my grade to a "C", I have to score a 100 on the five remaining tests, and that's the best I can do. 

Where is my motivation? Failing feels like a foregone conclusion. 

Is that really the position we want to put kids in? Are we looking to help, or teach them a lesson? 

We can do better. 

 - - -

Before I close with the financial pitch, I need to brag a bit. I've got two children in High School now - never thought I'd here those words out of my mouth. 

The girl, a sophomore, attends Nashville's School of the Arts for writing - shocker. She's also enrolled in Vanderbilt's School for Science and Math. 

Each class is about 25 students drawn from across MNPS, Students spend a day a week taking classes at Vanderbilt, They are expected to make up any work missed at their home school during their absence. It's a difficult program but the rewards are great. 

My Freshman is playing a little varsity football for John Overton High School. He's got a lot to learn, and the team is young but is embracing all of it. 

The picture was taken by the fabulous Teri Lampley Watson. Watson graciously documents the many exploits of John Overton High School students. To say she’s a treasure is an understatement. These images will endure long after careers expire.

There is nothing quite like getting a notification that a new batch of photos has dropped. I always open the files, scanning for my child, but getting excited when I see others as well. Often, it is a high point of my week, as she has the ability to capture them as I see them.

A special gift.

Watson may be special, but she’s not unique. Schools across the country have photographers who freely give of their time to record history. They go largely unseen but hardly unappreciated. Make sure as we head unto the Fall, you take a moment to say a thank you.

I probably don't say it publicly enough, but I'm extremely proud and blessed. 

 - - -

Now it's time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.

If you could help a brother out…and you think this blog has value …your support would be greatly appreciated. As the kids get older, money gets tighter, while the blogging workload increases exponentially. It's an age-old refrain. 

To those who’ve thrown some coins in the basket, I am eternally grateful for your generosity. It allows me to keep doing what I do and without you, I would have been forced to quit long ago. It is truly appreciated and keeps the bill collectors semi-happy. Now more than ever your continued support is vital.

If you are interested, I’m sharing posts via email through Substack. This has proven to be an effective way to increase coverage. Readers have the option of either free or paid subscriptions. Paid subscriptions will potentially receive additional materials as they become available. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

If you wish to join the rank of donors but are not interested in Substack, you can still head over to Patreon and help a brother out. Or you can hit up my Venmo account which is Thomas-Weber-10. I don’t need much – even $5 would help – but if you think what I do has value, a little help is always greatly appreciated. Not begging, just saying.