Ashcroft opponent blasts ‘callous’ remarks on dads risking COVID so kids can go to school

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was slammed Wednesday by his Democratic challenger in the November election for telling a radio interviewer that the fathers he knew would risk contracting COVID-19 — even dying from it — so that their children could attend school during the pandemic.

“At some point, we need to just put our heads down and say we’re gonna get through it, and we definitely need to send our kids back to school,” Ashcroft said on “Good Morning Ozarks,” broadcast Monday on KLFC, a Branson-based Christian station.

“I don’t know a father alive that wouldn’t risk getting COVID, even risk dying to make sure that his children had the greatest foundation for success for their life they could have.”

He also said: “If that’s the trade-off, me being safe and my kids losing a year and a half of education, I’m all in favor of taking that risk to make sure they can be the best they can be,” he said. “That’s what a dad does.”

Ashcroft, a Republican, defended his comments Wednesday afternoon, explaining that he wasn’t telling fathers that they have to die for their children’s education. Rather, he said, he was advocating for parents to have the option of sending their children back to in-person classes.

“I think parents ought to have that option,” Ashcroft said. “I’ve always been someone in political and personal life that thinks that we need to do things to give parents more ability to be in control of their kids’ education and to make the best decisions for their kids.”

Ashcroft’s Democratic opponent, St. Louis attorney and non-profit executive Yinka Faleti, blasted him in a statement released a statement Wednesday.

“It is shocking that Jay Ashcroft would make such an abhorrently callous, insensitive and irresponsible statement, suggesting he is willing to risk the lives of parents, children, teachers and school staff so that children can be sent back to school,” Faleti said in a statement.

Citing the risks outlined by the CDC and WHO guidelines, Faleti said the schools issue should be left to health professionals.

“He just needs to leave it to the scientists,” Faleti said. “Unless he’s an infectious disease expert, I think he’s completely out of his lane.”

Ashcroft said the school-opening debate has been completely politicized.

“I think only in partisan politics does wanting your children to be the best that they can be, to wanting future generations to be more successful than prior generations, does that somehow become controversial,”he said.

Ashcroft said people need to consider ways to make attending school in person risk-free, rather than cancelling it altogether. He highlighted the recent election as an example of safe in-person gatherings.

“I think we have a real problem of how people are looking at COVID right now,” Ashcroft said. “Because what people are doing is they’re saying, what is the risk of doing A. And they’re saying, oh, there’s a risk to doing ‘A’ we can’t do it...You have to look at not only what is the risk of A, but what is the risk of not doing A.”