Superintendents as De Facto Politicians

Willing or not, newcomers to district leadership quickly discover the need for partnership skills to work through the distractions

Education has more than its share of political conflict. Earlier this year, Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn resigned after a tumultuous four-year tenure during which she earned both praise and criticism across the political spectrum for her work leading the state’s K-12 schools.

The positives of her tenure included overseeing Tennessee schools through the COVID-19 pandemic, ushering in a teaching apprenticeship program and advising the state legislature in spending $120 million on summer programs and tutoring to mitigate what educators dubbed “learning loss” after COVID-19 school closures.

On the other hand, Schwinn was criticized for her stance on several issues, beginning with the Education Savings Account Program, which used state funds to award vouchers to low-income students in Metro Nashville Public Schools, Memphis-Shelby County Schools and Hamilton County Schools to attend private schools. A Democratic legislative leader told news media her tenure was “defined by a strategic and purposeful scheme to undermine the integrity” of public schools and “steer precious resources from underfunded schools to private entities.”

She also was the guiding force behind Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s controversial school funding formula, the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, which changed how the state funded public education for the first time in 30 years.

With criticism from Republicans over the elementary school English language arts curriculum in affluent Williamson County and intense scrutiny from Democrats who pointedly criticized her ties to charter schools, Schwinn was battered from all directions.