Though Trump’s pick for the top education job, Linda McMahon, has limited experience in the field, she’ll be joined in leadership by a seasoned educator with a bipartisan track record—creating what could be an effective team for advancing the Trump administration’s priorities, education policy watchers say.
The appointment of former Tennessee state education commissioner Penny Schwinn as deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Education marks a contrasts with Trump’s selection of McMahon for the agency’s top job.
McMahon’s background in business—as co-founder and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO before serving as administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration—and Schwinn’s robust education experience could pair well together, said Cate Sommervold, a professor at Doane University and author of a 2024 book on the nation’s 12 secretaries of education.
“They are a good balance of business acumen and experience in education—they complement each other,” Sommervold said in an email. “I believe that the complementary combination of the secretary and deputy secretary will allow for an effective team that will be able to make the significant policy moves that the president has proposed.”
Schwinn’s appointment was also greeted with optimism by three former secretaries of education who served presidents from both parties, and other policy watchers expressed hope that her selection foretells a focus in the federal agency on bolstering academics following historic achievement declines.
The reaction has been more mixed in right-wing circles. When Schwinn left her job in Tennessee in 2023, she criticized culture war battles over gender and race instruction as “extraneous politics” in an interview at the time with The 74.
But the Trump administration is already wading into fiery policy decisions by rolling back protections for transgender students and overturning previous policy that prohibited immigration officials from making arrests on school property.
Under one of Trump’s directives, the Education Department suspended staff who were involved with diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Its office for civil rights also dismissed claims related to district book removals and eliminated a coordinator position the Biden administration created to “address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students.”
Supporters of Schwinn’s appointment hope it portends a focus on learning outcomes.
“She has proven to be capable and practical, solutions-oriented, and willing to reach across the aisle to get things done,” said Roberto Rodriguez, who worked at the Education Department during the Obama and Biden administrations. “I think she’ll be a good partner.”
Schwinn draws praise for her work on literacy in Tennessee
The pick of McMahon as secretary of education drew a swift denunciation from the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
Schwinn’s appointment, by contrast, drew no immediate reaction from either of the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. Three former education secretaries, meanwhile, thought she was a promising pick.
Arne Duncan, who served under Democratic President Barack Obama, described her during a Jan. 21 Brookings Institution panel as “a serious person.”
“She’s smart, she cares about kids,” he said.
Schwinn served as Tennessee’s schools chief under Republican Gov. Bill Lee from 2019 to 2023. She started her K-12 career as a Teach For America teacher in Baltimore, before later moving into education leadership positions in several states. She had most recently worked at the University of Florida and earlier in her career founded a Sacramento charter school. Schwinn is a proponent of school choice—a priority for the Trump administration—but has also discussed a need for fiscal and academic accountability measures as part of policies expanding choice.
During her tenure as Tennessee schools chief, she oversaw the development of the first federally registered teacher apprenticeship program, oversaw implementation of a 2021 state law requiring that schools shift to evidence-based early literacy instruction, and led a review of the state’s funding formula that led to its first revision in decades.
“When she was in Tennessee, she was a voice for urgency around helping students read better, do math better, graduate better prepared for college and careers,” John King Jr., who served as education secretary under Obama, said on the same Brookings panel. “We need that kind of leadership in this moment; we are still way behind where we were before COVID.”
Margaret Spellings, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, echoed the sentiment.
“They’ve been in government,” she said of Schwinn and McMahon. “They know how to work with a legislative body. There’s some real encouraging signs.”
Schwinn is a less polarizing pick than the No. 2 in Trump’s first Education Department
During Trump’s first administration, the president’s pick for the No. 2 slot at the Education Department, Mick Zais, the former South Carolina state chief, was nearly as polarizing as Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos for education secretary.
Schwinn cuts a different mold, and she could help the Trump administration overcome some of the animosity created by the president’s executive orders targeting career staffers, said Carlas McCauley, who worked at the department as a career staffer from 2007 to 2014.
“Penny Schwinn is incredible,” said McCauley, an associate professor of education leadership and policy studies at Howard University. “I’ve watched her, from Delaware to Texas to Tennessee, build the kind of rapport internally, regardless of party line, to fight for and educate the most vulnerable student populations in the country.”
Her background as a state chief—especially one with a “proven track record"—will be vital in a role that’s heavy on state-federal relations, said Carey M. Wright, the state superintendent of schools for Maryland, who calls Schwinn a good friend and whose tenure as Mississippi’s state schools chief overlapped with Schwinn’s in Tennessee.
“It’s easy to sit up in an office and say, ‘Oh, let’s make the states do X.’ If you don’t have any experience at doing X, you have no idea the amount of work that goes into implementation and execution at a state level to get that accomplished,” Wright said.
Schwinn understands how fellow state chiefs will respond to new policies and initiatives from the department, and knowing how things are done at the state level will ultimately help the federal agency, Wright said.
Schwinn has “a real depth in background,” particularly when it comes to operating large, complex bureaucracies, said Jim Blew, who served in the agency during Trump’s first term.
“That puts her in a position to be very helpful to the secretary,” said Blew, who is now a co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a nonprofit focused on conservative policy solutions. “She’s going to be a great deputy secretary.”
Whereas McMahon’s job will have her interfacing with the White House, Schwinn’s will have her managing the department. With the two seeming “very aligned philosophically,” Blew anticipates they’ll complement each other well.
Her appointment, however, has rankled some on the right.
When right-wing activist Christopher Rufo, a high-profile critic of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, came out in support of Schwinn’s appointment last week, his post about it on the social media platform X drew several critical responses from conservatives.
During her tenure in Tennessee, one move that drew criticism from Republicans was a policy providing COVID relief funds to districts to support at-home well-being checks of students during the pandemic.
Schwinn’s pick signifies making use of the department, rather than abolishing it
Schwinn’s and McMahon’s confirmation hearings have yet to be scheduled, but they’re sure to feature questions for both about their thoughts on eliminating the U.S. Department of Education—a key Trump education priority.
The administration has two options—diminish the agency’s role and move its essential functions to other departments, or use it for various political ends, whether that’s as a “machine of culture war” or expanding private school choice, said Mark Hlavacik, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of North Texas.
“I see the decision to add Schwinn in that [latter] direction,” Hlavacik said. “There are plans to make use of the Department of Education.”
It’s a risk for the department to get “distracted” with matters like rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion, rather than focusing on learning, said Rodriguez. He hopes the addition of Schwinn is a good sign that learning will take precedence.
“That work—the real work around teaching and learning, student well-being and success, and economic preparedness, economic competitiveness—that can’t wait. That is very urgent work,” Rodriguez said.
Wright said Schwinn is good at keeping “the main thing, the main thing.”
“We’re all out here trying to make sure that students lives are changed for the positive, and that they become good readers, and have numeracy under their belts—all the things that you want young adults growing into,” she said.
Blew predicts a second Trump term that looks a lot different from the first, with the president taking office focused on issues squarely in the Education Department’s portfolio—including Title IX, student loan debt, and DEI.
“I think the White House will be much more engaged in shaping the Education Department’s agenda and work this time,” he said.
