Image: TN Dept of Education / Facebook
By Sam Stockard [The Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
Seeking a deputy secretary post in the Trump administration, former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn is promising to eliminate financial conflicts of interest to get the job, including minimizing ties to a Tennessee lobbying firm.
Schwinn, who left the state job in 2023 and served for a short time as Vice President for PK-12 and Pre-Bachelors Programs at the University of Florida, was selected for the U.S. Department of Education position nearly as soon as President Donald Trump won election this year but still hasn’t received Senate confirmation to take the appointment.
In a May 5 letter to an Education Department ethics official, the former Tennessee education leader for Gov. Bill Lee described steps she would take to avoid any “actual or apparent” conflict of interest, including personal participation in any matter in which she would have a financial interest.
If confirmed for the job, Schwinn said she will resign from an unpaid position with Nashville-based 38 Ventures LLC and become a non-managing member, though she will receive passive investment income from the entity. Blake Harris, former chief of staff for Lee, is the registered agent for the company located at 611 Commerce St.
In addition, Schwinn said she would resign her post with BHA Strategy, a lobbying company founded by Harris, Lee’s former communication director Laine Arnold, and Brent Easley, the governor’s former legislative director. Schwinn wrote, though, that she would receive a set referral fee of 30% for a contract she brought to BHA.
Schwinn said two companies she controls, Bexley Group, LLC, and PLSchwinn LLC, which are set up to receive business income, would stop conducting business and representing clients. Bexley Group’s listed address also is 611 Commerce St. in Nashville.
After being confirmed, she also would resign from a post with Soliant Health LLC through which she holds vested and unvested incentives with TVG-Soliant Holdings, LP. She would receive a cash payout for her vested incentives before taking the deputy secretary post, according to the letter.
In addition, Schwinn said she would resign from posts with TVG-MGT, Edmuntum Inc. and Really Great Reading and would divest interests in Odyssey and Amira Learning.
Schwinn went through a similar ethics process in March 2021 when she told Tennessee’s Central Procurement Office she would distance herself from an $8 million contract with TNTP Inc., a reading skills educator training company that employed her husband, Paul.
Schwinn came under fire from lawmakers in 2020 when the legislature removed the education commissioner as a voting member of the Tennessee textbook commission and took away the commissioner’s ability to grant waivers for school districts seeking to use unapproved books and materials. Lawmakers were concerned that Schwinn was too involved in the textbook adoption process.
