After seismic policy shifts, will Tennessee's new education chief push for more?
Tennessee’s new education commissioner, Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, has built a career ushering in sweeping education policy changes — from overhauling the Texas education code in the 1990s to counseling state officials on school choice policy for the national advocacy group ExcelinEd.
But for now, she said she’s focused on making Tennessee's new education laws work smoothly.
“I see my role as implementation,” she told The Tennessean in an interview. “You can pass all the bills and all the laws you want, but if it just remains an initiative, then that’s all it is. It’s just a thing that sits on the shelf."
Joining Gov. Bill Lee's administration directly from an advocacy group that seeks, in part, to transform the education system by challenging traditional norms has led to skepticism from public school advocates and Democrats across Tennessee.
For instance, state Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, accused Lee of funneling tax dollars away from public education and into private schools.
"The last commissioner rubber stamped his ideological agenda, and it looks like the new one is ready to double down on these corrupt policies," Campbell said in response to Reynolds' appointment in May.
But implementation, Reynolds said, not more sweeping policy change, was key in her conversation with the governor when he interviewed her for the job in April.
Now, just over a month into her new role, Reynolds is primarily focused on putting in place a string of high-profile education policy changes the Lee administration has pushed through since he took office in 2019. Those include a controversial school voucher program, a new funding formula for K-12 education, which has been criticized as not doing enough for Tennessee's education funding shortcomings, a revamped reading curriculum and curbing the state’s teacher shortage.
The Tennessean sat down for a roughly 30-minute interview with Reynolds on Aug. 2. Here a five key takeaways from that conversation.
(Stick around for a light-hearted "speed round" at the end.)
Education is 'our path to move forward'
Reynolds grew up in the Rio Grande Valley town of Harlingen, Texas, about 30 minutes from the Mexican border. She played clarinet and dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
“My mom always instilled in me that education was our path to move forward,” she said.
She attended Southwestern University, a small liberal arts college outside of Austin, with a plan to study accounting. But a political science professor changed her trajectory. She described him as “more of a socialist" who talked about Marxism and the need to "share everything." She changed her major to political science.
“I became infatuated with the idea of using government to actually help people,” Reynolds said. “I never turned back.”
A career punctuated by policy change — and the Bush family
Reynolds’ first job out of college was at the West Texas Chamber of Commerce in 1987, working for $5 per hour.
"I ran over to the Capitol, put press releases in the [boxes], sat in the gallery, watched the legislative process,” she said. “I like to say my graduate education was at the Texas Capitol.”
She worked for state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, for a session, and then landed her “first dream job” working for Republican state Sen. Teel Bivins, who served on the education committee.
In the mid-90s, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush sought to overhaul the state’s education code to give the governor more authority, and open the state to charter schools. Reynolds staffed the committee where those changes were drafted.
“That's when I found my love of the legislative process,” she said. “I'd already loved it but then I got to be a part of it – the sausage making."
It was her first stint working on education policy alongside a member of the Bush family, and certainly not the last.
She was soon brought on as a legislative director in Bush's gubernatorial administration, and later in the U.S. Department of Education during his presidency under former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. She focused on IDEA reauthorizations and Head Start, which she said are still “two big passions.”
Later she helped lead the Texas Education Agency, a highlight of which was working on college and career pathways. She eventually traded places with Tennessee’s outgoing education commissioner, Penny Schwinn. Reynolds said she is passionate about building "on ramps" for students to higher education, which can ultimately lead to career pathways and boost workforce development.
Starting in 2016, Reynolds worked with another member of the Bush family, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, as the vice president of policy for his school choice advocacy group the Foundation for Excellence in Education, or ExcelinEd. According to its website, the group’s goal is to “transform education to ensure success for each and every child” through policies that prioritize early literacy, education choice, innovation and strengthening school performance.
ExcelinEd advised on TISA funding formula
While she is personally new to Tennessee, Reynolds’ team at ExcelinEd played a role in the state’s adoption of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act, or TISA, which overhauled the state’s system for funding K-12 education. The new formula replaced a model long seen as outdated and underfunded.
“We came in on a needed basis,” Reynolds said. “Everything from policy to ... the advocacy side.”
During the 2022 session when lawmakers passed the TISA legislation, Reynolds said team primarily came to Tennessee “to really talk about the value of weights for low income students, and for other special populations of students to really ensure that the funding follows the kid and their individual circumstances and their families.”
ExcelinEd’s policy team shared model legislation, Reynolds said, and the group’s 501(c)4 advocacy wing also engaged on TISA’s passage, mostly with state lawmakers and their staff.
How Reynolds got recruited to Tennessee
Reynolds got a call to interview for Tennessee’s education chief job in April. As protests unfolded at the state Capitol, she met with Lee's Chief Operating Officer Brandon Gibson, and later with the governor.
“I told him Tennessee has always been on the map when we talk about education,” she said. “We talked about the impact and the role of Tennessee. He told me his story about why he cares about education and his commitment to continuing it for all kids.”
Coming to Tennessee meant leaving what Reynolds called “a great team, and an amazing policy agenda that I believed deeply in.” It also meant leaving Austin, where her youngest child is still in high school.
“When I left that interview, I told myself, 'I really want to work for this man,'" she said. “He has a great vision and commitment to education."
Are policy changes coming?
Tennessee has seen seismic shifts in education policy in recent years, drawing praise from reform advocates but controversy and criticism from many public school advocates and others.
In 2019, one of Lee's first priorities after taking office was starting a school voucher program. Known as Education Savings Accounts, the program allows state funds to pay for low- and mid-income students to attend private schools. The program survived a years-long legal challenge, and was implemented for the first time last fall.
The education savings accounts currently are only available in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties. So does Reynolds foresee the program expanding statewide?
“We're going to see what the governor and the legislature are going to do on those issues,” she said.
For now, she came back to the same theme she has oft repeated: Implementation. The department has received 2,961 applications for the program, of which 2,145 are approved. Reynolds wants to make sure the program is a smooth transition for families and their kids to "ensure that they are able to customize what they need."
Lee and Schwinn oversaw a complete overhaul of the state's funding structure for K-12 education in 2022, and added more than $1.25 billion in new funding for public education. As TISA begins to take effect, Tennessee still ranks ninth-from-last nationally in per-pupil funding, though it has the second-highest base funding per student in the Southeast.
Critics have said the new TISA system has not done enough to remedy the state's public school funding woes. Reynolds disagrees.
“I think that the TISA has done a tremendous job toward getting us where we need to be. The funding is now focused on the kid it's not on the system,” she said.
This year, for the first time, public school third graders are required to repeat the grade if they fail to meet new state state literacy requirements.
Those who failed the English language arts portion of the state's annual standardized test had to either meet exemption standards, pass a retake, win an appeal, complete summer school and pass a post-test or enroll in tutoring to move on to fourth grade. The measure is aimed at ensuring reading proficiency for children by the time they reach fourth grade.
In May, 60% of third graders fell short of the literacy benchmark, setting off a fast-moving timeline for nearly 45,000 students and their families. Many voiced concern over tying a single score on a standardized test to such a deeply impactful decision. Lawmakers amended the law to include spring reading screener scores next year, but not in time for this year's third graders.
Christie Andrews, executive director for Nashville nonprofit tutoring center Learning Matters Inc., put it bluntly.
"The TCAP ELA is not a reading proficiency test," Andrews told The Tennessean in May.
When asked about the fight to improve literacy among Tennessee's children, Reynolds again said her focus is “implementation, 24/7." She also wants to build support for local districts in curriculum and professional development needs.
“Everybody needs to know what works for kids and reading," she said. "Unfortunately, a lot of the knowledge and skills has maybe not been directed towards the kinds of curriculum, or the kinds of supports, that are actually going to help kids learn how to read."
Reynolds also said math literacy may become a future focus for the department of education.
“As a country, we really have got a lot of work to do in math — and a lot of that requires also looking at the science about what works for kids,” Reynolds said.
A lightning round, just for fun
What was your favorite subject in school?
"Math."
What's your favorite snack?
"I'd say gummy bears. The sour ones."
What's a book that's been impactful in your life or your career?
"It's the 'Count of Monte Cristo.' I love that story."
What did you want to be when you grew up?
"An astronaut."
Reach reporter Vivian Jones at vjones@tennessean.com or on X and Threads at @Vivian_E_Jones. Reach reporter Rachel Wegner at rawegner@tennessean.com or find her on Twitter at @RachelAnnWegner.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds: Will she push for change?
