“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.”
“You poked it with a stick?”
“No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

Sometimes, the lack of a story is the story.

A case in point is former Tennessee Superintendent of Education Penny Schwinn’s appointment as Deputy Director of the US Department of Education.

It’s been almost two months since President Trump appointed Scwinn, yet her confirmation hearing remains unscheduled.

Initially, national reform pundits couldn’t stop praising the former state education chief. Even the left-leaning Tennessee Lookout got into the act, printing a commentary piece in which author Julia Steiny claimed, “I’m hard pressed to think of another current politician or education leader with such credible dedication to kids, no matter what.”

But they’ve since grown silent.

Despite coming from a Red State and claiming Conservative principals, the Trump appointment was not embraced by Tennessee’s conservative leaders. Perhaps they’d witnessed enough of the wolf sans her sheepskin clothes and saw through the charade.

Her appointment seemed all but a done deal, but the talking stopped. Over the last several weeks, there has been little discussion of the Schwinn appointment. The little discussion that seems to eke out centers on officials concerned about her history.

If the streets are to be believed, she has been questioned about her personal decisions. And while nothing has stuck, questions remain.

To be fair, Linda McMahon was only confirmed as Secretary of Education two weeks ago. Since then, she has begun an aggressive realignment of the USDOE. Last week, 1,300 Department of Education employees were laid off, a step many saw as the beginning of the USDOE’s dismantling.

Hard to justify hiring a new leader when you cut 1300 of their potential direct reports.

Those firings caused department defenders to leap into action and sound the alarm bell for the demise of an agency created in the early 1970s. Much of the defense was framed in terms of race, sexual orientation, and poverty,

The USDOE was borne out of a distrust for states to do the right thing by its disabled, poor, and minority kids. Many believe that without the oversight of the federal government, these children would be further marginalized.

I would have accepted that argument 50 years ago, but I’m not sure I buy it today, especially because most people proposing this argument are in my peer group.

The staunchest defenders of public education in its current form are drawn from older white citizens whose experiences are not drawn from the current reality. Sure, we are ardent observers, but we seldom participate other than as teachers.

Name me a pundit under 30 who is on the frontlines of preserving public education as it currently exists. Three generations into children’s education in charter schools, the results have been as mixed as in traditional schools. I’d argue that charter schools are integral to the status quo. We elder denizens might not like it, but that’s reality.

That genie ain’t going back into the bottle.

But let’s get back to the Department of Education. Two of my favorite writers posted defense pieces this week. Jennifer Berkshire and Peter Greene argue that the USDOE’s existence is essential. Both believe that racism and classism are the root causes of the department’s dismantling.

Berkshire writes:

At the heart of the Trumpist intellectual project is a relatively straight-forward argument. The civil rights revolution in this country went too far and it’s time to start rolling it back.As Jack Schneider and I argue in our recent book, The Education Wars, the role that public schools have historically played in advancing civil rights makes them particularly vulnerable in this moment of intense backlash. It’s why the administration has moved with such ferocity against the most recent effort to extend civil rights through the schools—to transgender students. And it’s why the cuts to the Department of Education have fallen so heavily on its civil rights enforcement role. Of the agency’s civil rights offices across the country, only five are still open.

Greene echoes her charges:

For these folks, education is not supposed to be about uplift, but about sorting and suiting people for their proper place in society. This sorting could be done more efficiently if the sorting happened before they even got to school, if, in fact, the school system itself was already set up with several tiers so that Betters and Lessers could have their own schools.

I’ve argued for years that the free market is a lousy match for public education because the free market picks winners and loser, not just among vendors, but among customers. But for a certain type of person, that’s a feature, not a bug. The Lessers shouldn’t get a big fancy school with lots of programs because all they need is enough math and reading to make them employable at the Burger Store. 

While I wouldn’t outright dismiss either argument, I would say that the more profound argument is not about the sorting but rather who does the sorting.

Should schools be reflective of society or its aspirations? Who decides what those aspirations are if it’s the latter?

I think it’s safe to say that both consider schools a primary vehicle for social change. That position raises another question: Who dictates what that social change looks like?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion proponents argue on a moral high ground. In doing so, they often fail to acknowledge that equity can quickly become exclusion in practice. I’ve long argued that equity is not just finding a new demographic to marginalize. Yet, that remains the prevalent pathway.

Going even further, nobody will embrace equity until they have assurance that their offspring are protected. Call it cynical, call it what you will, but there is a survival gene in all of us that ensures our descendants don’t just survive but thrive.

That’s not to say the principles of equity should not be pursued, but it’s important that we do so with eyes wide open and with attention to unintended consequences.

I scoff when companies release press statements proclaiming their ending of DEI policies. If you believe they are doing that, I still have that bridge in Arizona for sale.

Companies may downplay and rename policies while retaining the principles. If you are looking to compete for workers today, you must recognize societal changes.

The world is not static. The 1970s bear little resemblance to the current age. Twenty-year-olds don’t view society through the same lens as sixty-year-olds. At some point, us elders have to relinquish control to younger generations. Let them fight their own fights instead of forcing them into battle over our world views.

Democracy requires a belief in you, fellow citizen. State departments of education today are not your father’s state departments of education.  Perhaps there is some merit to the idea that they can best administer policy for their state.

If you believe that Tennessee has made gains in its students’ educational outcomes, you must acknowledge that such growth is made possible through state policies, not federal ones.

The feds only played a role in distributing funds to the states, which still managed that funding.

Some argue that research is an integral role of the USDOE. Education writer Jill Barshay wrote a tweet that decried the loss of data brought on by the mass forings at the DOE:

The stats agency inside the Education Dept dates back to 1867. It is supposed to collect, analyze, and report data on the condition of U.S. education—from early childhood to adult education. It has apparently been demolished today. Nearly everyone at NCES lost his/her job.

That sounds scary and disastrous, except that it’s not exactly accurate. We may have data, but assessments and expectations have changed. What counts as proficiency has changed since the ’30s, let alone the turn of the century.  I would argue that what we measure remains more reflective of the skills needed for a bygone era than a future one.

Maybe it’s time to shelve the existing data and reassess its value.

Last week, I was discussing with my 16-year-old daughter starting a business Twitter account. She gave me a 30-minute discourse on setting up that account and maximizing its potential. Her points were well thought out and expressed in a language I barely understood.

Where in USDOE’s data set is that knowledge reflected?

As a sexagenarian, I may view social media as a frivolity, but failure to view mastery as a marketable skill is short-sighted at best.

I would argue that instead of fighting over policies and departments rooted in the past, more time should be devoted to identifying and developing candidates who better understand the future.

We can remember history; we just shouldn’t live there.

– – –

The Tennessee State Board of Education will convene on March 20, 2025, for a special called meeting.

The State Board of Education will hear items on first and final readings, including rules to establish procedures to implement the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. Meeting materials and the live stream link are available on the State Board of Education website.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has promised that the ESA program will be up and running by the start of the 2025 school year. Can’t do that without any rules.

Do you remember back in the last General Assembly session when the only thing anybody could talk about was Arizona? Their recently enacted voucher program was going to lead to financial ruin and devastation. Hyperbole never ages well.

Arizona has more than 80,000 students participating in their voucher program.

Arizona ESA students receive 90 percent of the state’s portion of per-pupil funding—typically about $7,409 for students without special needs. All told, Arizona’s public school students receive $15,102, from state, federal, and local revenues. Students with special needs get funded based on their specific disabilities. The most recent ESA quarterly report indicated that 1,344 ESA students with disabilities received $10,000–$30,000 during the 2023–24 school year, while 6,842 ESA students with disabilities received over $30,000.

The anti-school-choice group Save Our Schools Arizona tried to put the universal ESA expansion on the ballot for a referendum, hoping to kill the idea, but failed to gather enough signatures.

If you remember, Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, made headlines by calling for a rollback of the program’s expansion, claiming that it would “bankrupt the state.” Her proposed budget would have restored the original eligibility criteria and booted tens of thousands of students from the program. The Republican-controlled legislature blocked her move.

According to an article written by Jason Bedrick:

“Hobbs’s prophecies of fiscal doom also failed to materialize. At the end of fiscal year 2024, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that, far from “bankrupting the state,” the state’s DOE enjoyed a $4.3 million surplus. Figures from the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee showed that, though the ESA awards were $92 million higher than forecasted, the total was offset by a reduction of about $93 million, resulting from public school and charter school enrollment declines. The net result: a small savings of $352,200 relative to the enacted budget.”

The latest efforts to combat the ESA program stem from an opinion issued in July 2023 by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. That opinion reinterpreted the ESA statute to require families to justify nearly every purchase with curriculum documentation. This has slowed the approval process, caused delays in reimbursements, and added hours of paperwork for parents. “You have to have a curriculum for everything—a pencil, a piece of paper, a book,” Simone Bell, the mother of a 15-year-old student with ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome said. “It takes me an average of an hour to make a curriculum. Imagine all the time it takes away from my child’s education. It’s ridiculous.”

Bell is not alone in her complaints. Parents report waiting weeks for approvals and months for reimbursements. For families like Bell’s, these delays mean they often can’t afford necessary services as they wait for payments. “Things used to be auto-approved or approved in five or six days,” says Bell. “Now we’re lucky if they’re approved in three weeks.” She has been waiting over two months for $1,400 in compensation for her son’s tutoring. “I can’t even get more tutoring sessions for my son because there’s no more cash in the account,” she says.

Tennessee should still discuss Arizona as the State Board of Education meets to discuss rules for its ESA program.

Tennessee has 162 schools statewide, signaling an intent to participate in the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS) Program. It’s safe to say that intent is contingent on the rules passed by the state board of education.

– – –

Ironically, as former commissioner Penny Schwinn’s nomination for Deputy Director of USDOE stalls, one of her former deputies finds themselves without a gig.

For Tennessee Chief Academic Officer Lisa Coons abruptly resigned as Virginia’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, effective immediately. Coons was appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin on March 22, 2023, and served as the executive officer of the Virginia Department of Education, overseeing public schools statewide.

The resignation of Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons was announced in an email to staff Friday afternoon, according to a copy of the message obtained by The Washington Post.

“It has been an honor to serve Virginia’s students, families, and educators. After careful consideration, I’ve decided to pursue new opportunities,” Coons posted on X, formerly Twitter. “I am grateful to the VDOE staff and educators who inspire me daily — Virginia’s children will always hold a special place in my heart.”

No reason for the Friday afternoon resignation was provided.

While I’m certainly no fan of Coon’s, she is more qualified to be be Deputy Secretary of Education then her former boss Penny Schwinn. Coon’s average tenure is less then three years, so she probably wouldn’t be opposed to working herself out of a job.

I don’t know; it makes for an intriguing discussion.

– – –

On March 3, 2025, the TSSAA Legislative Council approved a proposal allowing student-athletes a one-time transfer to another school without penalty, provided the transfer is for academic, social-emotional, environmental, or mental health reasons and not for athletic reasons.

The hope was that the move would satisfy Tennessee lawmakers’ intent to make the transfer policy more student-friendly. It that case it falls short.

Schools can still hold an athlete hostage by refusing to sign off on the move because it is academic. How does a student prove motive without involving the courts?

Lawmakers have indicated that they will continue to pursue legislation removing that caveat. And, they should.

– – –

It’s Charter School application season in Tennessee, perhaps for the last time.

This year, potential charter operators have filed 11 applications for new schools in 5 districts. Each school board must follow the same state guidelines in determining whether the applications warrant approval. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

State Senator Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, told members of the Senate Education Committee Wednesday that some school boards ignore those state guidelines when denying new charters.

“We’re making these adjustments because we do have people who do not act in good faith when it comes to charter applications. This is a way to make sure we have that check,” said Lowe

Hence, a new law would allow charter operators seeking approval to bypass the local authorizer and apply directly to the state. That proposed law advanced out of committee this week.

Lowe is a co-sponsor of the bill, allowing charter applicants to apply directly to the charter commission if they want to open a school in a district with three charter denials overturned in three years. Under the bill, the charter commission’s “direct authorization” would be in effect for the district for up to five years.

Representative Lowe’s bill would additionally give the charter commission new flexibility to renew charters every five years instead of every ten and allow charter operators who want to replicate an existing academic model and public colleges and universities to apply directly to the commission.

Charter school opponents, including those on the Nashville School Board, oppose the legislation but have nobody but themselves to blame for the bill’s introduction.

Over the past four years, the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission has voted to overturn the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education decisions and approve new public charter schools. Something was bound to change.

Members of the Senate Education Committee voted 7 to 2 in favor of advancing the bill, with only Senators Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, opposing it.

– – –

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Categories: Education