‘Dad Gone Wild’ Blog Creator TC Weber Comments on Education Record of Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner Penny Schwinn

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Dad Gone Wild blogger TC Weber in the studio to talk about Governor Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s record on Tennessee education.

Leahy: In the studio, TC Weber writes about education: Dad Gone Wild. (Chuckles) I just love that. Now, you have been a critic of both Governor Bill Lee and his selection to head up the department of education, Penny Schwinn.

I’ve sort of characterized her as a left-wing, and you said, well, it’s not exactly right. What’s your view of both Bill Lee and Penny Schwinn in the education arena?

Weber: I think in the arena as a whole, we have looked at everything through a political lens, and we think everybody is either a liberal or a conservative. And the reality is, if you look at the history of Penny Schwen and Bill Lee, neither one of them is either party. Neither one of them are an ideologue.

The only thing that they pay attention to is the money. That’s all they care about. You look at Bill Lee, he claims to be a conservative, but he’s growing government. He’s taking away local control. He’s instituting policies that run counter to conservative core values.

Whether you’re a conservative or not a conservative, you recognize what is considered core values. Neither one adheres to that. You know, Penny keeps shifting money out to the private entity.

An example would be TNTP, which is the new teacher policy, which was started by Michelle Rhee, married to Kevin Johnson: Kevin Johnson, the Democratic mayor that got in charge and got in trouble in Sacramento for all kinds of sexual harassment. He was [Penny Schwinn’s] mentor when she ran for school board and helped her start her charter school out there.

Leahy: Yeah. Now she’s a UC Berkeley grad. She got into trouble in Texas. She got in trouble in Texas for special education, for shifting money. But Bill Lee thought she would be the right choice to be the Commissioner of Education here.

Weber: This is something we touched on briefly, and I think part of it is there’s a whole, almost shadow government, without sounding like you’re putting a tin hat on, that runs things more in Tennessee when it comes to education policy.

And that’s your nonprofits, your SCORE, your Chiefs for Change; education trustees. These entities influence policies, they lobby lawmakers, and they provide so-called solutions, but they don’t have any accountability.

It’s no accident that Chiefs for Change, which was an organization started by Jeb Bush – and I think it’s interesting, he started this organization back about five years ago, and eight out of the first 10 members were superintendents who had either been fired or run off because of questionable behavior.

Leahy: Well, they were there for the change. (Laughter)

Weber: They were there for the change. Yes. Change they found in the couch. (Laughter)

Leahy: Boom shaka-laka.

Weber: But anyways, Chiefs for Change, from the last three superintendents of the state, state superintendent of all comes from Chiefs for Change.

And Chiefs for Change has an understanding, a handshake agreement that they can provide services behind the scenes with no contract and no even scope of work. For example, on TISA; the education funding formula that we just changed, they created the website. Chiefs for Change, with cooperation again, no contract, created a website that looked like a Tennessee education government website where you could go up and get updates.

You put your name and address and everything else in there. And many people probably thought they were given this information to a government entity. It wasn’t. It was a third-party vendor by Chiefs for Change that created a database that can be used for whatever. So we have no idea what these nonprofits are doing and how they’re shaping things.

Leahy: We do have an idea of what Penny Schwinn is doing. Apparently, she didn’t like something that you wrote, or somebody took it from you and repurposed it. And is it true that she called the United States Department of Homeland Security?

Weber: Not the United States. It was the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security that answers exclusively to Bill Lee.

Leahy: The Tennessee Department of Homeland Security paid you a personal visit?

Weber: Yes. I was sitting on my couch one afternoon and the phone rang, and I answered it, and he said, this is agent so and so from Homeland Security. And I said, well, that’s wonderful. And he says, we’d like to come talk to you. And I said why? And he said, well, the commissioner has been receiving threats.

And I said you think it’s me? And they said, well, your name came up. I said, do I need to call my lawyer? They said, no, you don’t even need to talk to us. I said, do I get lunch? And they said no.

And I said, well, come on by the house. And he came by the house. And I said, all right, why are you here? He says, well, she’s been getting threats. And I said, do you think that I’m it? He goes, well, the commissioner did show me And then he made a big deal saying the commissioner never ever ever called him and never ever sicced him on me.

But he did happen to reference a piece that she didn’t like that was called “Californication.” And it came with a graphic of her in bed. I don’t even remember with who.

And it talked about all her history of graft from California to here, where she was taking two paychecks when she was getting a six-figure salary from her charter school in California when at the same time she was serving the citizens of Delaware as a department of education Supervisor.

She was drawing two salaries, while working coast to coast. And I explained to him that, well, that was nice that he was here, but I didn’t do that graphic. And second of all, did you think it was threatening? And he went, that’s in bad taste. I said, again, do you think it’s threatening? And he mentioned that sometimes I get a little tasteless. And I said, well … (Chuckles)

Leahy: Why is it that the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security has a right to come into your house and say to you some of the things you write are tasteless?

Weber: Because I don’t think they like very much that some of the things were starting to gain ground while we were talking about TISA and some of the problems with TISA. That it was taking away local control. That it was going to see more taxes. And they wanted to get this refunding of public education.

Leahy: So TISA stands for what?

Weber: It’s something Student Act.

Leahy: Tennessee something?

Weber: Yeah, something clever. The bottom line is they want to change the way, or they have changed the way we fund our schools. And it’s going per pupil as opposed to the system, which, without getting too much into it, we already fund it per student.

This new system just gives everybody a dollar figure for what each student is worth. And I’m not sure that that is a viable way to do things, especially when it raises the specter of more taxes for local communities.

Leahy: So what happened with the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security after they interviewed you in your house, at the suggestion, apparently, of Commissioner Schwinn?

Weber: They just kind of let me know that they were watching me and he was reading me, and that I’m a prolific writer, and thanked me for my time. And then he left and I never heard anything more.

And I guess they assumed that the message was received. And I don’t know what that message was. Remember at the time, too – and I always think that part of this was to send it to Republican lawmakers because certain lawmakers were starting to push back hard against the governor’s initiative.

And if you look at the recent election, Bill Lee, who’s supposedly a conservative, targeted true conservatives like Terri Lynn Weaver and Scott Cepicky. Terri Lynn Weaver, he was able to pick off. Scott Cepicky was able to beat him back.

And it’s interesting, because you can say a lot of things about Terri Lynn, you can say a lot of things about Scott, but the bottom line is, if you’re supporting conservatives, both of them have bona fides as conservatives.

          Leahy: Strong conservatives.

Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Penny Schwinn” by Tennessee Department of Education.