Trump's nomination for U.S. deputy secretary of education, Penny Schwinn, has ties to Sacramento
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for United States Deputy Secretary of Education, Penny Schwinn, is a former Sacramento County Board of Education member and the founder of a south Sacramento charter school.
Schwinn is the founding leader of Capitol Collegiate Academy off Meadowview Road in south Sacramento. The school opened in 2011 on Roosevelt Avenue and moved to its current location in 2012.
The school followed a slow growth model, starting with kindergarten in 2011 and eventually opening eighth grade in 2020. It currently serves 470 students from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade.
In 2012, Schwinn was elected as a member of the Sacramento County Board of Education, serving portions of school districts that include Elk Grove Unified, Sacramento City Unified, San Juan Unified and all of Folsom Cordova Unified.
Schwinn earned her bachelor's degree from the University of California-Berkeley. She then earned her master's in teaching from Johns Hopkins University and her PhD in education policy from Claremont Graduate University in Southern California.
"A former teacher herself, Penny became the founding principal of a charter school, because she believes in the power of School Choice, and is committed to delivering the American Dream to the next Generation by returning Education BACK TO THE STATES," Trump posted on his Truth Social.
She served as the chief deputy commissioner of academics at the Texas Education Agency and is the former Tennessee education commissioner.
