education

Deputy Secretary of Education Nominee Schwinn Supported DEI, CRT and Comprehensive Sex Ed

More than 25 organizations and 80 individuals urged the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this month to oppose Penny Schwinn to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education.

President Trump nominated Schwinn for the position in January, citing her experience, commitment to school choice and willingness to return education to the states.

Co-signers, including Focus on the Family-allied Arkansas Family Council (AFC), argue Schwinn threatened parents’ rights, supported radical curricula and acted unethically in her previous roles as Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency and Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education.

“Penny Schwinn’s track record is troubling to many conservatives,” AFC’s Assistant Director David Cox told the Daily Citizen. “Right now, a lot of families feel like their public schools have been used to promote radical ideologies, and there is concern that Schwinn won’t stand up against those ideologies as Deputy Secretary of Education.”

Here are the coalition’s chief concerns.

Threatening Parental Rights

As Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education, Schwinn created a program allowing government officials to enter family’s homes for “child wellbeing checks.” The initiative would have applied to all families, not just those with children in public school.

Though Schwinn quickly nixed the idea following parents’ outrage, the letter argues it’s a black mark on her commitment to parent’s rights.

“‘Child wellbeing checks’ posed a threat to personal property rights and parental rights, contrary to the principles of the Trump administration as well as the U.S. Constitution,” it reads.

These kinds of programs can be used to frighten parents, like Erin Lee, who demand transparency in public schools.  You can learn more about Lee’s story here.

Critical Race Theory

Parents in Williams County, Tennessee sued Schwinn and other education officials in 2022 for violating the state’s ban on Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The suit involves a controversial English curriculum called Wit and Wisdom. When the program failed to meet state education standards in two separate state reviews, Schwinn gave 33 counties waivers allowing them to teach unapproved books and resources, including Wit and Wisdom.

The work-around enraged parents, who complained the program taught principles consistent with CRT, in addition to graphic and age-inappropriate content. Schwinn declined to address parents’ complaints, arguing the program had been taught prior to the state’s CRT ban.

Trisha and James Lucente sued Schwinn, they explained, because the “curriculum was adopted through a process in violation of state law, and over the objections of several parents and educators who raised serious concerns about the graphic, racist and age-inappropriate nature of much of its content.”

The suit is ongoing.

Conflicts of Interest

Schwinn also faced formal consequences for favoritism after issuing Wit and Wisdom waivers.

An international book publisher and several district directors complained Schwinn followed an unfair approval process, disqualifying some curricula after it passed state reviews and, inexplicably, approving others that failed.

Schwinn had previous connections to Wit and Wisdom. She had adopted it for a charter school she founded in Sacramento — the same school now sitting on a Wit and Wisdom publisher panel.

As a result, the Tennessee legislature revoked Schwinn’s ability to issue waivers.

Schwinn has also been embroiled in several contract snafus, the letter explains. In Tennessee, she faced scrutiny for awarding an $8 million dollar contract to her husband’s employer.

Earlier, as Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn awarded a $4.5 million agreement to a contractor she knew. Auditors eventually determined the contract violated purchasing rules, and Texas Education Agency had to pay the money back.

“If Penny Schwinn does not follow U.S. Department of Education Rules while in Texas, how can she be trusted to lead the Department, much less oversee its elimination?” the letter asks.

DEI

Schwinn’s history with DEI dates back to 2018, according to the letter, when she was a member of Chiefs for Change — a group of education officials working, in part, to implement DEI in schools.

In an interview clip that resurfaced on X, Schwinn describes her core values as, “Equity and integrity for all, no matter what.”

Women’s rights activist Riley Gaines reposted the clip in January, writing,

Anytime someone claims their desired outcome is equity, understand, they’re pushing a communist agenda. NO to Penny Schwinn.
Comprehensive Sex Ed

Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) are radical “rights-based” and “pleasure-based” sex ed curricula that affirm children’s right to consent to sexual activity.

As Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn nominated several proponents of CSE to Texas’ Health Standards Committee, the body responsible for setting state sex ed standards.

Schwinn nominated Debra Hauser, the president of Advocates for Youth — an LGBT activist organization with ties to Planned Parenthood. The group supports “youth rights to bodily autonomy” and “confidential sexual and reproductive health services.” In other words, kids’ right to engage in sexual activities and treatments without parents’ knowledge or consent.

Hauser was not confirmed to the Health Standards Committee.

Melissa Peskin and Susan Tortolero, also nominated by Schwinn, contributed to It’s Your Game, a federally funded CSE program authored in conjunction with Planned Parenthood.

An analysis of It’s Your Game by Stop CSE, a database documenting problems with radical sex ed, found the middle school program contained nine of 15 harmful elements of CSE, including “[promotion of] premature sexual autonomy.”

Unlike Hauser, Peskin and Tortolero both made the final committee.

Why It Matters

When it comes to education and public schools, parents must be able to make informed decisions about what their child is learning. Schwinn’s checkered past suggests she isn’t an ally parents can count on.

“Parents want to be confident in the leaders who help shape education policies,” Cox concludes. “Unfortunately, Schwinn’s track record just doesn’t provide that confidence.”

Senators need to think long and hard before they cast their votes.

Additional Articles and Resources

Download Equipping Parents for Back-to-School to find out more about what’s happening in schools and how to advocate for your children.

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Denver Summit Focuses on Safeguarding Children From ‘Transgender’ Medical Harms

The Rocky Mountain Summit on Safeguarding Children from Gender-Affirming Treatment will be held April 6 in Denver. The three-hour event focuses on protecting children from the devastating effects of “transgender” social and medical interventions.

Geared for “parents, educators, medical professionals and concerned citizens,” the summit features two panels that explore how gender ideology harms minors and their families.

The Family Impact Perspectives Panel features Erin and Chloe Lee, January Littlejohn, and Matt and Judith Rey, who will offer personal stories of how transgender social and medical interventions harmed their families.

Dr. Miriam Grossman, Leor Sapir, Candice Jackson and Dr. Michelle Stanford are on the Medical, Legal and Policy Perspectives Panel, which will explore scientific, ethical and legal concerns around “gender-affirming treatment.”

The summit is sponsored by parental rights and child health advocacy groups, including Do No Harm, Parents Defending Education, XX-XY Athletics and Colorado Parent Advocacy Network.

Panelist Erin Lee is a Colorado mom whose preteen daughter was targeted by gender activists when she attended what she thought was an art club after school. Since then, Lee has become an advocate for parents rights in education and an opponent of transgender ideology. Her family’s story is told in the documentary film Art Club.

Like Lee, January Littlejohn is a mom who found out her 13-year-old daughter was being “socially transitioned” at her Florida middle school – without her parents’ knowledge or consent. An activist for parental rights in education, Littlejohn was recently honored by first lady Melania Trump as a special guest at President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Littlejohn is a Parent Advocate with Do No Harm, a medical advocacy group “focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research and clinical practice.” 

Matt and Judith Rey are activists with Gays Against Groomers, which describes itself as a “nonprofit of gays, lesbians, and others in the community who oppose the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children under the guise of radical “LGBTQIA+” activism.” Matt was born female but was badly damaged by a double mastectomy and opposite sex hormones that caused “symptoms that resemble Tourette’s and epilepsy.”  

On the medical and legal panel, Dr. Miriam Grossman is a child psychiatrist who has been combatting transgender activism for more than a decade. In her 2009 book You’re Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child, she warned parents about sex education and gender ideology being taught in K-12 classrooms.

More recently, Grossman published Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness and was featured in Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman?

Leor Sapir is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing writer to City Journal and other outlets, focusing on education, culture and pediatric gender medicine. He’s written widely about the lack of scientific evidence for transgender medical procedures.

Dr. Michelle Stanford is a Colorado pediatrician who completed her Pediatric Residency at The Children’s Hospital, Denver. The hospital recently announced it was suspending transgender interventions for confused minors after President Trump signed an executive order saying the federal government would not fund hospitals and medical schools harming children through transgender drugs and surgeries.

Candice Jackson is the Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, and has consulted in her legal practice “with groups and individuals challenging the harmful effects of the concept of ‘gender identity’ in laws and policies in schools, employment, and public accommodations.”

To learn more about the conference, click on the link below:

Rocky Mountain Summit on Safeguarding Children from Gender-Affirming Treatment: Clinical Perspectives & Family Impacts, Sunday, April 6, 2:30-5:30 p.m., The Inverness Denver, Englewood, Colorado.

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Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

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Focus on the Family: Homosexuality Resources; Transgender Resources; Understanding Homosexuality

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Dept of Ed Reduces Size, Scope; Grows Power to Cut DEI, Racism

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has undertaken significant actions to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. Department of Education including leadership changes, workforce reduction, office closures and policy shifts. New energy is being directed to root out DEI and racism from school programs nationwide.

After years of declining student outcomes and wasted money, many believe a change is not only warranted, but essential.

Leadership Appointment

On March 3, 2025, Linda McMahon was confirmed as the new secretary of education. Secretary McMahon’s primary objective, as outlined and supported by President Trump, is to dismantle the Department of Education.

In an email to agency staff, later shared on the agency’s website, McMahon told employees that the Department of Education is not working as intended and a review is long overdue. She asserted that in her professional experience “disruption leads to innovation and gets results.” She told staff that they must think about their work to overhaul the agency as the “final mission at the department.”

In the email, she very clearly laid out three convictions of the department:

  1. Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education. 
  2. Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology. 
  3. Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs. 

After spending over one trillion dollars since the department’s formation in 1980, with declining student outcomes, McMahon referred to the agency’s work under her leadership as “one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students.”

Workforce Reduction

Notably, this month the administration announced plans to reduce federal employees at the U.S. Department of Education by over 1,300 workers.  

This reduction, coupled with nearly 600 employees who accepted voluntary resignation and retirement packages, represents a nearly 50% reduction in the federal workforce at the Department of Education.

Secretary McMahon said that the reduction “reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”

The action is consistent with promises Trump made on the campaign trail to decrease the size of the agency.

According to the department’s press release, employees impacted by the reduction will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21. They will receive full pay and benefits until June 9, 2025, in addition to “substantial severance pay or retirement benefits.”

Office Closures

Due to the reduction in workforce, seven of the 13 Offices of Civil Rights (OCR) will completely close by June 9, 2025, including offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. OCR offices in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. will remain open. There are about 550 OCR workers employed by the Department of Education. Approximately 243 of the OCR employees received termination letters, a majority of them lawyers.

Policy Shifts

Not only is the Department of Education hyper-focused on decentralizing education and giving more power to states, local education authorities and parents, but it is also committed to rooting out radical ideology and racism from primary, secondary and higher education.

Under Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Education has ceased enforcement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that, among other things, allowed men to compete against women in women’s sports.

In February of this year, it created an “end-DEI” portal for the public to submit complaints about DEI programs in schools and warned schools that federal funding could be cut for non-compliance.

In late February, the Department of Education announced an investigation into apparent discrimination in Maine’s schools where males were allowed to compete in female sports. 

This week, the federal government froze $174 million in federal funding headed to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) due to its policies which force women to compete against men in sports. UPenn made headlines in 2022, when they allowed a mediocre biological male swimmer, Lia Thomas, to compete against women.

In March, the Department of Education sent letters to 60 colleges and universities warning them of enforcement actions that will be taken against their institutions if they permit antisemitism on campus.

The department also opened investigations into 52 higher education institutions who receive federal funding for alleged violations of federal law that prohibit the use of racial preferences and stereotypes as a factor in “hiring, promotion, compensation, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, sanctions, discipline, and other programs and activities.” 

Legal Challenges

The effort to close offices and reduce the workforce at the U.S. Department of Education has been met with a legal challenge. A coalition of attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit attempting to block the administration’s efforts. The lawsuit argues that such actions would severely impair its ability to fulfill legally mandated functions.

In response, the Department of Education defended its actions claiming the executive branch has the authority to reorganize, enhance efficiency and reduce redundancy. The department also maintains that all their actions have been done in full compliance with existing federal laws. Finally, the agency argues that the restructure is essential to achieving the administration’s policy objective to decentralize education oversight and give more control to state and local authorities.

Further Executive Action to Dismantle Department of Education

An executive order to dismantle the Department of Education is still expected. A complete abolition of the department would require Congressional action because it was statutorily created by Congress.

At present, there appears to be much work for the Department of Education to do as it enforces federal law and makes sure radical ideology and DEI practices are cut from education programs across the country. In the future, enforcement actions could be carried out by the Department of Justice if an executive order were to limit the work of the Department of Education.

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Advocating for Educational Freedom and School Choice

Focus on the Family was recently contacted by a secular news agency with questions about education freedom and the popularity of homeschooling and private education options over government-run schools. This gave us the opportunity to explain more fully why school choice matters to families and sets students up for success.

Right now, with so many fundamental assumptions about the government’s involvement in education being questioned, this is the perfect time to have conversations with our neighbors and friends about why education freedom is essential to the future of the education movement in the United States.

Here’s how Focus on the Family made the case for school choice and education freedom.

Advantages of School Choice

Focus on the Family believes parents have the God-given, fundamental right to direct their children’s education.

School vouchers give parents more independence to direct their children’s education. We know that children have different personalities and learning styles. Parents know their children and are equipped to make education decisions in their child’s best interest.

Focus on the Family will continue to advocate for parental rights and equip parents to understand their rights. We want parents to feel confident in their ability to advocate for their rights as parents and for their children.

Implications of Families Choosing Homeschool and Private Education Over Government-Run Public Schools

As President Trump’s Executive Order “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families” explains, public schools are failing. Recent reports show that only 30% of eighth graders are proficient in reading and math. This is despite federal, state and local combined government funding of $17,700 per student. 

Rather than continuing to subsidize the failing public education monopoly, having more school options means public schools are competing for education dollars, and competition generally leads to better options – in this case, better education options for students and improved student achievement.

The federal government can’t mandate educational freedom – that’s a state issue – but it can offer incentives for states to give families more options, which is what this order does. Increasing educational freedom is good for students, families and our country.

Trump’s Executive Order Prohibiting Indoctrination in the Classroom

Focus on the Family applauds the new Executive Order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” that will end the activist indoctrination in K-12 schools.

We know some public schools have become politically and sexually radicalized. They teach, promote and celebrate values and ideologies that are in direct conflict with the spiritual values of many parents.

It is the duty of schools to teach students how to think and engage in discussions with civility — not to indoctrinate students with radical racial and gender ideology.

Education Freedom is Widely Popular

According to Real Clear Opinion Research, Americans overwhelmingly support school choice in education — by a margin of 71% to 13%.

Americans believe in education freedom because it equalizes education opportunities regardless of family income. Education freedom is about helping students attain the education that’s best for them.

Resource for Parents

Focus on the Family has a free parent resource on education — “Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.” It explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently sent her staff a letter titled, “Our Department’s Final Mission.” She wrote, “My vision is aligned with the President’s: to send education back to the states.”

Secretary McMahon added, “The Department of Education’s role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”

Other goals listed in the staff letter include:

  • “Empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children through increased school choice” by “promoting school choice for every child.” 
  • Combat radical ideologies and practices, such as “critical race theory, DEI, gender ideology and discrimination in admissions.” 
  • Eliminate “waste, red tape and harmful programs in the federal government.”
  • Restore “patriotic education and civics.” 

President Trump has already taken steps to achieve some of these goals, signing executive orders directing the DOE to promote educational freedom for families; stop the indoctrination of children into “radical, anti-American ideologies”; protect girls and women’s sports; and end diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) programs in education.

The department’s Office of Civil Rights launched investigations into schools and districts for Title IX violations.  Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor then sent a “Dear Colleague” letter, warning states and schools that they must eliminate discriminatory DEI trainings and curriculums and end racial preferences in hiring and admissions – or lose federal education funds.

Shortly after his election, the president said, “One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and sending all education and education work back to the states.”

Since Congress established the DOE in 1979, it’s unlikely that this administration can unilaterally and legally shut down the department without congressional approval.

But conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,  argues there are things Secretary McMahon can do to reduce the size and impact of the government agency. In an article in City Journal, he writes:

The administration must first understand that the Department of Education administers three primary activities: college student loans and grants; K-12 funding; and ideological production, which includes an array of programs, grants, civil rights initiatives, and third-party NGOs that create left-wing content to push on local schools.

He suggests McMahon handle each of these areas separately:

  • First, the department should spin off all college student loans and grants to an independent financial entity.
  • Second, the administration, in cooperation with Congress, should block-grant the Department of Education’s K-12 funding programs to the states. 
  • Third, Trump must shut down the Department of Education’s centers of ideological production and terminate the employment of the bureaucrats who run them.

Rufo explains this last point, saying:

The department maintains a sprawling network of ideological centers through its research programs, as well as a vast array of NGOs, which survive on department funding and promote left-wing identity activism. These groups have become hotbeds of progressive identity politics, promoting theories of “systemic racism” and the idea that men can turn into women.

The conservative author has posted examples on X demonstrating DOE support for radical ideology. For example, this NGO, given funds by the agency, tells educators they should “learn to further avoid stigmatizing youth engaged in survival sex work.”

The presentation goes on to describe “adultism”: “The oppression experienced by children and young people at the hand of adults and adult-produced/adult-tailored systems.”

Rufo spotlighted another training program, funded by the DOE, “which claims that babies develop racial biases as infants and begin ‘attributing negative traits to non-dominant (non-white) races’ by age 5.”

Your tax dollars at work.

Secretary McMahon wrote in her letter to DOE employees about the waste and misuse of funds, with little positive impact on academic achievement:

The Department of Education is not working as intended. Since its establishment in 1980, taxpayers have entrusted the department with over $1 trillion, yet student outcomes have consistently languished. Millions of young Americans are trapped in failing schools, subjected to radical anti-American ideology, or saddled with college debt for a degree that has not provided a meaningful return on their investment.

McMahon reminded the staff, “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education.” She encouraged them to work to “empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children” as the administration seeks to transfer educational authority back to the states.

Related Articles and Resources

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, critical race theory, sexual education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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