Kansas Association of School Boards member refers to homeschooling as a 'Nazi scandal'

Scott Rothschild is the communications editor of the Advocacy department for the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB). KASB is an organization that, according to their website, has “put the needs of school districts first since 1917, and we are proud of our mission to provide board members and school district leaders with the support, expertise, and resources they need to help every Kansas student succeed in school and in life.”

From this, it’s easy to assume Rothschild is for public education far more than other forms of education that parents may choose for their own children. However, while it garnered little attraction on twitter, it was still a shock for some after the public schools advocate tweeted on Wednesday, July 19, the following statement:

As some lawmakers debate Nazi home schooling scandal, others propose expanding vouchers https://t.co/xjHhfOXKUC #ksleg #ksed https://t.co/02JoSHc20H

— Scott Rothschild (@srothschild1) July 19, 2023

The tweet where Rothschild refers to homeschooling as a “Nazi home schooling scandal” was in response to a tweet by CEO of Kansas Policy Institute Dave Trabert, an advocate of school choice who was sharing an article on Ohio becoming the eighth state to enact universal school choice in the last two years.

The severity of the language used by Rothschild led to pushback from Kansas economist Michael Austin, who spoke about the tweet on ‘The Pete Mundo Show.’

“This is exactly what we’re seeing from monopolists,” Austin said. “When they don’t get their way, they feel like they have to do the name-calling, the hyperbole, they have to go to extreme measures so that they get listened to.”

Austin went onto compare it to ‘the boy who cried wolf’ where the more these “monopolists” yell the more they can be ignored due to having to go to “extreme measures” to make their case and “grab more power.”

“He is saying if you decide to take your child home and make sure you teach them the values and principles that you want to reenforce as a parent, you are, of course, a Nazi,” Austin added. “But guess what else he doesn’t recognize? At 26 percent, Americans’ confidence in the public school system is at an all time low. Parents across the country are upset by the activism that’s being taught to their children. The LGBT agenda that’s being taught to their children at such young ages. They don’t want that. They just want reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they can’t even get that right as we talked about earlier today. So, they’re trying to find other options, and because they have the audacity to say, ‘You know what? I want something different,’ they get called Nazis.”

The interview continues with them discussing the benefits of school choice, specifically for Black students.

The interview can be listened to here.