Penny Schwinn served as Tennessee education commissioner from January 2019 until June 2023. In that role she led the restructuring of Tennessee’s $9 billion school finance system and the redesign of the state’s teacher-preparation market, making teaching in Tennessee a federally recognized apprenticeship profession. She designed and launched the state’s comprehensive Covid-recovery and student-acceleration programs that included major literacy, math, and tutoring initiatives. She led a $500 million statewide high school initiative to align K-12, post-secondary and workforce needs. And she secured the largest one-time and recurring investments in K-12 education in Tennessee’s history. Before Tennessee, she served as assistant secretary of education at the Delaware Department of Education and chief deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency.
Schwinn currently serves as a FutureEd senior fellow. She holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, a master’s from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD from Claremont Graduate University.