Neo-Nazi homeschoolers could get taxpayer funds under GOP-backed bill

Ohio Republicans could steer up to $22,000 in public money to a neo-Nazi homeschooling couple that offers a white nationalist curriculum.

House Bill 11 would provide up to $1.1 billion in state funding for homeschooled children and students at non-chartered private schools, which means Katja and Logan Lawrence, who operate the Dissident Homeschool Network channel on Telegram, could get taxpayer money for spreading neo-Nazi propaganda to children, reported Vice News.

“Beginning in 2025, the bill’s Backpack Scholarship Program qualifies any public, nonpublic, or home-educated student enrolling in grades K-12 or the equivalent to receive a scholarship funded through an education savings account,” concluded the state Legislation Service Commission. "[These] funds may be used to pay tuition and fees to attend a participating nonpublic school or pay for various other educational goods or services. Under the program, students in grades K-8 receive $5,500 and students in grades 9-12 receive $7,500."

The bill could not include any new oversight over homeschooling regulations, which are so lenient that the Department of Education determined the Lawrences weren't breaking any rules by pledging to teach children to “become wonderful Nazis.”

“This Backpack Bill is a black hole that will suck up more than $1 billion dollars right out of taxpayers’ pockets and public school funding and distribute it wildly all over the place to private schools, charter schools and, yes, home schools where a Neo-Nazi curriculum can be taught and amplified at taxpayers’ expense,” said Democratic state Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat, told VICE News. “Considering Republicans miscalculated the cost of this bill by more than a billion dollars and considering they feel homeschooling standards and transparency don’t matter, they should take this bill back to the drawing board.”

A previous version of the bill, which was introduced by Republican state Reps. Marilyn John and Riordan McClain after the Lawrences were unmasked, received only a single hearing, but House speaker Jason Stephens said the current version of the Backpack Bill was among his top legislative priorities.