{"id":738754,"date":"2025-01-21T17:10:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T22:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=738754"},"modified":"2025-01-22T11:22:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:22:41","slug":"reading-champion-penny-schwinn-expected-to-keep-ed-dept-focused-on-achievement","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/reading-champion-penny-schwinn-expected-to-keep-ed-dept-focused-on-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Champion Penny Schwinn Expected to Keep Ed. Dept. Focused on Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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When Penny Schwinn<\/a> resigned as Tennessee\u2019s education chief in 2023, she acknowledged that culture war battles over race and gender had interfered with efforts to catch students up after the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see it as extraneous politics, and my job is to educate kids,\u201d she told 社区黑料 at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now she\u2019s up for the second highest education post in the Trump administration, and advocates hope she\u2019ll keep the spotlight on student achievement, particularly literacy \u2014 even as the new president promises to amp up conflicts she\u2019s previously sidestepped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, questions about her conservative bonafides prompted an unusual defense<\/a> on X Tuesday from right-wing activist Chris Rufo. Rufo said he met with members of Trump\u2019s education team Monday and asked Schwinn to address \u201ccriticisms circulating on the Right” about her tenure in Tennessee. In an attempt to shore up support for the nominee, he posted that she vowed to \u201cshut down the terrible programs at the Department of Education, fight critical race theory, gender cultism, and DEI in America\u2019s schools, and support new initiatives on school choice and classical education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among supporters, Schwinn is primarily known for pushing the academic needle forward following the devastating effects of pandemic lockdowns in Tennessee. As commissioner under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, she used COVID relief funds to launch a statewide tutoring program and has been credited with revamping instruction to incorporate the science of reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis gives me hope that the Trump Administration wants to play a constructive role in addressing learning loss and improving our schools,\u201d said Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to lead the department, Schwinn has been a teacher and also held top education positions in Delaware and Texas. Supporters call her a smart pick at a time when student performance hasn\u2019t fully recovered from the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and served in the education department during the first Trump administration, called her \u201chardworking, very well-informed and savvy,\u201d and said her experience would be a \u201ccomplement to Linda McMahon\u2019s strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, some have their doubts. Democrats dislike her strong support for charter schools, while some Republicans pointed to a pandemic plan to conduct well-being checks on children in their homes as an example of government overreach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n