In a release from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, we learned that Penny Schwinn will step down as Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education at the end of
In a release from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, we learned that Penny Schwinn will step down as Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education at the end of this school year and be replaced by a former Texas administrator who currently oversees policy for the Jeb Bush-founded advocacy group ExcelinEd.
Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds will become the first Hispanic-American to lead Tennessee’s education department when she starts her job on July 1.
Schwinn told reporters Monday that she plans to continue living in Tennessee, but declined to share her future plans.
The change comes at a pivotal time for the state’s education system as Tennessee is shifting to a new education funding formula, enforcing a controversial new third-grade retention policy, operating large-scale tutoring and summer learning programs to help students catch up from the pandemic, expanding its private school voucher program to a third major city, and spending unprecedented amounts of resources to make schools safer after the March 27th shooting at Covenant School in Nashville.
Reynolds has nearly three decades of policy and legislative work in education at the state and federal levels.
In Texas, she was deputy legislative director for then-Gov. George W. Bush later served as chief deputy commissioner for the Texas Education Agency.
At the federal level, she worked in the Bush administration under U.S. education secretaries Rod Paige and Margaret Spellings.
Since 2016, Reynolds has been vice president of policy for ExcelinEd, launched by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2008.
Dr. Russell Dyer, Director of Cleveland City Schools, said of Reynolds, “I look forward to welcoming her to the state of Tennessee, and look forward to working in partnership with her to help ensure the success of all students as well as all of our schools.”
