We Got a Date

We've got a date!

Penny Schwinn, the former chief of Tennessee's state schools, was chosen in January for a senior position at the U.S. Department of Education. She will appear before U.S. senators next week for her confirmation hearing. Earlier this month, she pledged to resign from several business roles to eliminate potential ethics concerns.

Schwinn, who has been appointed deputy secretary under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, will appear alongside Kimberly Richey, whom President Donald Trump has selected as the assistant secretary overseeing the Education Department's office for civil rights. They'll appear with two U.S. Department of Labor nominees at the hearing, which is scheduled for June 5 at 10 a.m. before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Those outside the Beltway found the long wait for confirmation unusual and maybe a sign of hesitation about her appointment, but insiders say it's a routine part of the process, and too much shouldn't be read into it.

Schwinn's supporters also downplay any potential conflicts of interest.

"This is a Cabinet that includes a record number of high-wealth individuals," Rick Hess, senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning public policy think tank, said. "The questions about conflict of interest have not been a big deal. I'd be really surprised if, for the No. 2 role in the Department of Education, it suddenly was a big deal."

Here's the issue that Hess is missing: She has spent her entire career as a public servant. Schwinn's wealth has come from American taxpayers. She didn't start a professional wrestling league and amass a fortune through its growth. What she did was find a way to wrangle taxpayer money into her personal portfolio.

Remember, this was a woman who was drawing a full-time salary from her California public charter school while living on the easy coast and collecting a six-figure salary from the Delaware Department of Education. She continued to draw her California salary when she moved to Texas.

Schwinn has been involved in numerous education-related businesses since stepping down from her gig in Tennessee in 2023. She agreed she would resign from several roles—including from a consulting firm led by former chief of staff to Tennessee's governor, Blake Harris. She also decided to resign from education companies, including Really Great Reading and Edmentum, for which she has served as a paid board member. She also pledged to divest ownership interests in Odyssey—which contracts with state private school choice programs to administer education savings accounts—and Amira Learning, which has AI-powered literacy instruction products. She vowed to no longer take clients for two LLCs she owns, for which she is the sole employee.

Furthermore, if approved, Schwinn promises to resign from an unpaid position with Nashville-based 38 Ventures LLC and become a non-managing member. However, she will receive passive investment income from the entity. Blake Harris, former chief of staff for Lee, is the registered agent for the company located at 611 Commerce St.

In addition, Schwinn said she would resign her post with BHA Strategy, a lobbying company founded by Harris, Lee's former communication director Laine Arnold, and Brent Easley, the governor's former legislative director. However, Schwinn wrote that she would receive a set % referral fee of 30% for a contract she brought to BHA.

I'm curious about what contract she brought to BHA, as Oyssey is a BHA client.

The passive income that Schwinn would continue to receive is on the property she co-owns, which houses BHA and for which she disclosed on her forms, could bring as much as a million dollars a year to her bank account. It's not shabby at all.

Late this morning, word came that one of Penny's companies might have slipped her mind when filling out her disclosure sheet for her appointment.

In February, she teamed up with former Palm Beach School District Superintendent Donald E. Fennoty and formed a Florida Limited Liability Company, The New Horizon Blueprint Group.

When you constantly create new shell companies, it's hard to track them all. But did it really slip her mind?

After failing to disclose her business interest, she transferred her role to her sister Katherine Rose Sully on March 17, a month after creating the company.

The girl just can't help herself.

If you are unfamiliar with Fennoty, let me refresh your memory. Of course, he was a Chiefs for Change member. He led the Palm Beach School district during the nation's COVID crisis. He came under fire because of his strong support for masking policies and equity issues. He reportedly received heavy criticism from constituents, which caused him to lose 50 lbs and ultimately resign from his position for health reasons.

Fennoty's last year of service was marred by a deterioration of his relationship with school board members. Controversies over mask requirements, the school district's use of the Baker Act to send students to mental institutions, and the rollout of a controversial equity statement that vowed the schools would battle "white advantage" all fueled the breakdown in relations.

The question is, will any of it matter?

Rick Hess doesn't think so. He tells Edweek that with Schwinn appearing among several other appointees, she likely won't feel too much heat.

He said the fact that she's not sitting alone indicates that members have been able to address some questions ahead of the hearing.

"Sometimes tensions flare up, and you've seen those raised from some of the folks who are more focused on culture, that she has not been as focused on those questions as they would like," Hess said. "It seems that at this point, especially if they're doing her as part of a panel, that's likely been sorted out."

Nobody works the system better than Penny Schwinn.

But I'm going to quote my old German teacher here. Herr Paulus once told me. "Weber, you are very good and sitting on the fence, but someday you will fall off."

Fortunately for Ms. Schwinn, June 5 doesn't appear likely to be that day, but we shall see.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell has proposed a 13% increase for Metro Nashville Public Schools over last year's budget. However, not all members of the Metro Council embrace the idea. One council member, Courtney Johnson, criticized district leaders for not presenting a line-item budget at a hearing between city and district leaders.

"This is, by percentage, the largest amount of money that we allocate every year," Johnston said. "This is not a budget, so developing educated questions around specific things is hard."

Johnston also blasted the district for using pandemic relief funds to create programs that now must be accounted for in the operating budget, saying it left taxpayers to "pick up the tab." The federal government warned against this when it supplied schools with financial relief during the COVID crisis.

The council member noted that the MNPS budget has increased "exponentially" since 2019. Councilmember Burkley Allen later commented that the overall budget for Nashville has risen by 70% since 2019, while the MNPS budget has increased by around 60% in that same period.

The difference is that MNPS enrollment has declined by around 5,000 students since 2019 while the city population continues to grow rapidly.

The city has seen noticeable improvements, while the school district has just begun to return to pre-COVID levels.

This week, the Metro Nashville School Board continued its internal discussions on the 2025/2026 school year budget at its budget committee meeting. It was an interesting one, one that illustrated a harsh lesson for new school board member Zach Young.

A portion of the major's 13% increase is dedicated to a 3% employee cost-of-living increase. While board member Young is appreciative of that increase, he's not sure it's enough to combat teacher attrition. He would like the board to have a conversation about going to four or five percent. He would like to look hard at where the board could be cut to make this happen.

"I think the only way we can try and continue to make progress filling positions is not falling behind on what we pay the employees," said Young. "I think 3 percent keeps us on track but I don't think it gets us ahead to try and help us out and so I'm really going to implore this board to really think about, are we ready to make some potentially tough decisions to get to a 4 or 5 percent."

This is a reasonable request. That's not a view shared by other board members.

One area suggested looking at was programs previously funded by federal pandemic dollars.

The proposed budget includes more than $64 million to continue operating programs previously funded by pandemic dollars, including those supporting students with college and career readiness and mental health support, along with other priorities like safety.

Board Chair Freda Player was the first to clap back. She's happy to have that conversation as long as any discussion of cuts includes a frank discussion of the potential impact on teachers' work lives. She further argued that going hire makes it more difficult to grant future COIs.

"Each year I've been on the board, the cost of COLAs has increased roughly a million dollars. So that's something that will go into perpetuity and it makes it tougher to make consistent COLAs into the future because we're also increasing it,"said Player.

District 8 board member Erin O'Hara Block demonstrated how to say you don't want to have a conversation without saying you want to, proposing that the discussion be held after data was gathered showing the impact of a 1% increase on teacher attrition—data that would probably not be available for at least a couple of months.

I'm all for a data-fueled conversation, as long as it includes data on the impact of programs funded by MNPS Director of Schools Dr. Battle. Let's talk about AVID for a minute.

The district annually spends millions of dollars on the program, including travel for teachers to summer out-of-town training sessions, without a measurement tool for success.

District 1 Boardman Robert Taylor argued that this was a state issue and not a local problem. I've grown weary of the state underfunding education argument. Mainly because after years of asking, nobody can tell me what a fully funded school district looks like. No business in existence gets to fully fund every wish and desire regardless of return, yet this is what public school districts continually argue should be afforded to them.

The whole conversation reiterated my belief that once something goes into the budget, it takes nearly an act of god to reduce or cut it. District 2 Board Member Rachael Anne Elrod District fortified that belief when she expressed reservations about whether cuts could be made without harming the programs.

"I think it's a fine conversation to have. Admittedly, looking at it quickly, I don't know where we would find it," said Elrod

For me, it's a simple litmus test. The core tenets of student success depend on the relationship between a student and a teacher. If a policy or program does not fortify that relationship, it can be cut.

It is amazing how we always find money to fund the things we think are important, while the undervalued items get shuffled to the back with a promise of consideration next year.

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Speaking of funding things you want, next week, MNPS principals head off to Muscle Shoals for the annual Principal Splash.

This year's Splash will include a poolside dinner focusing on Dynasty Building.

As part of this dinner, principals are encouraged to think about the leadership plays that are now a part of our DNA. Think about the opportunities we have to coach up our own to lead our schools. Some dynasties that inspire us are the 1993 Chicago Bulls team (the original three-peaters), Motown Records, Pixar Animation Studios, and the Lady Vols, to name a few.

During SPLASH, they will explore questions like "How will schools contribute to their cluster's dynasty" and "How will all of our schools combined shape the dynasty of MNPS?"

Dinner on Thursday night is designed for principals to show their cluster pride in the way that feels most authentic to them.

They are asked to design their "cluster look" and wear it to dinner.

Furthermore, they are being asked to select a walkout song. Each cluster will be introduced during the dinner, and principals should be prepared to share their walkout song.

I wonder how many will choose an Animals song.

I want to be a fly on the wall for this one.

- - -

One final MNPS note. Teachers may remember they were promised a $2000 bonus if ESA legislation passed and their district signed a resolution supporting school choice. Well, the legislation passed, and supposedly, MNPS has signed a resolution, so the only question that remains is, where is the money?

Unfortunately, there are a lot more questions that still need answering. When will teachers see the money? Rumor says July.

How will the money be distributed? You can bet that it will be taxed, but will it be one lump sum or parsed out over several months?

Who gets the money? Is support staff included?

Hopefully, some answers will be coming soon.

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