Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Commissioner Penny Schwinn is a leftist and a statist who wants the government to have too great of a role developing public school students, according to a video one organization released this week.
Gary Humble, speaking for Tennessee Stands, criticized Schwinn and the TDOE for proposing that state officials go to people’s homes to perform wellness checks on children.
Humble said that a lot of people had a problem with that proposal, and that’s why state officials put the program on hold.
“That program was an incredibly progressive and invasive statist program that left a lot of us scratching our heads thinking ‘How in the world did that get here in the state of Tennessee?’” Humble asked in the video.
Humble then played clips of Schwinn that he took from various YouTube videos, where she used words such as “privilege” and “equity.”
“We see a break in the role of a parent and the role of the state,” Humble said.
“She wants an enhanced role of the state in overall developing children in Tennessee over the competency of parents and our ability to parent our children.”
In other clips, Schwinn discussed addressing a public school students’ physical, developmental, and exercise needs as well as tending to their addiction and poverty issues.
TDOE officials did not return The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Friday.
Tennessee Stands, according to its website, calls on Gov. Bill Lee and other government officials at the county and state levels “to restore our constitutional republic.”
As reported this month, Humble recently wanted members of the Tennessee General Assembly to amend the law to give additional counties the right to recall school board officials.
As The Tennessee Star reported last year, Schwinn, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, began her career in education working as a teacher for Teach for America.
Teach for America is a controversial non-profit organization that pays new college graduates to teach in urban schools as part of its mission to address “educational inequity” and “help children overcome obstacles like systemic racism and poverty.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Dear Governor Lee:
It has come to my attention that your/our Education Commissioner, Penny Schwinn, does not seem to have the best interest of the Tennessee children or the future of our great state when she tries to advance Critical Race Theory and obtrusive wellness checks in peoples homes. The loyal conservative populace of Tennessee are all wondering what you were thinking by selecting her in the first place. How is it that she is advancing policy contradictory to our laws and you have not taken action to stop her or remove her for this important position. In addition to he flouting our CRT law, she gives your administration the bad optics with the $8M conflict of interest with her husband’s firm. It’s time to stop being a RINO and embrace our conservative values by placing people in leadership roles who espouse the values of those who elected you.
Lee needs to reel her in or better yet fire her. He claims he is all about education but it appears he is all about supporting left wing ideals in education.
Just more evidence of Gov. Lee’s poor judgement.
As long as we as a state keep electing moderate RINOs we are going to keep having turds like this floating to the top of the bowl. Political reform starts with us…
GO BACK TO CALIFORNIA. Why did Lee hire this nut in the first place. I am really getting irritated at the California crazies moving here and trying to change things here.. Hire someone from the Tennessee school system that knows what in the hell is going on here. She is a California Commie
Nut Case!
In other words, TDOE is going to try and Californicate our school kids.