A California teacher couple decided to quit teaching in public schools due to what they referred to as “indoctrination, not education.” The longtime teachers decided to establish a Christian online school that reportedly resists the left-leaning educational agenda featured within the public school system.
Kali And Joshua Fontanilla Established The Exodus Institute
Kali and Joshua Fontanilla reportedly established a Christian online school known as the Exodus Institute as an alternative to the standard public school setup. A detailed profile on the pair published by the Washington Post indicated that the pair were active for a long time within California.
The Fontanilla couple used to teach English class at the middle and high school level when working for public schools. However, they reportedly resigned from their jobs and later launched their online school.
COVID-19 Closures, Black Lives Matter Support Led To Resignation Decision
The Fontanilla couple apparently did not appreciate the school closures that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. That was one of the reasons that led to their decision to resign from teaching in public schools.
The couple was also reportedly dissatisfied by their colleagues deciding to support the Black Lives Matter movement. In their opinion, the movement allegedly adopted an “anti-police stance”, which was ultimately “false and hateful.”
Fontanilla Couple Was Convinced School Taught Harmful Ideas About Race, History
Kali and Joshua, ages 41 and 42 respectively, were also convinced that the public school that they taught at focused on teaching harmful ideas about history and race. According to the couple, they believed that the school taught a false theory that America was systemically racist.
Mostly conservative fathers and mothers throughout the country raised similar alarms as anxiety later fueled legislation that restricted how educators were able to teach about sex, race, and gender. New laws affected nearly half of the nation’s students by April 2024.
Fontanilla Couple Wanted To Expose Propaganda Of Public Schools And Offer Alternative
Kali and Joshua wanted to essentially expose what they viewed as propaganda shared by the public school system and offer an alternative for families to consider. The couple moved to Florida to establish their own Christian school in 2021.
They have since grew their school to a size of almost 200 students. The buzz generated overall by the school was substantially boosted by Kali’s appearances and interviews with such conservative media outlets as Fox News.
Kali Fontanilla Uses Her Instagram Following To Recruit New Students
Kali reportedly posts Instagram videos regularly that are full of right-wing rhetoric. She has generated an audience of over 333,000 followers within the social media platform.
This has proven to become an effective recruiting tool for the couple’s school as well.
Fontanilla Criticized Online For Offering ‘Racist, One-Sided, Whitewashed’ Opinions
Not everyone has had a positive reaction to Kali Fontanilla’s online presence. One report shows that she has spurred a vast number of critical messages from people online that believe she is indoctrinating students with a conservatively skewed perspective.
One recent post from one of the online critics referred to her content as a “racist, one-sided, whitewashed opinion.” Another user indicated that no one was “impressed by the trash” that Kali is “trying to sell.”
Governor Newsom Signed Legislation To Require Students To Take Ethnic Studies Class
California Governor Gavin Newsom made waves back in October 2021 when he signed legislation that required high school students to take an ethnic studies class to be able to graduate. The mandate was designed to become effective with the graduating class of 2030.
However, high schools were required to start offering ethnic studies courses effective for the 2025-26 school year. One report claims that hundreds of high schools already had similar courses when the new law went into effect.
Ethnics Studies Class Was Required To Focus On Four Ethnic And Racial Groups
According to the legislation, the ethnic studies curriculum must draw attention to four major ethnic and racial groups with stories and history that were traditionally overlooked. The four groups specifically referenced were Latinos, Blacks, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.
The model curriculum was designed to include discussions on the legacies and ethnic heritage of students within their community. It consisted of lesson plans that highlighted Arab, Jewish, Sikh, and Armenian Americans as well.
Kali Analyzed Ethnic Studies Lesson Plans That Highlighted ‘Critical Race Theory’
While still teaching English in a Salinas district public school Kali did research on the ethnic studies lesson plans within the internal systems of the school. She discovered evidence that certain colleagues were introducing their students to the “critical race theory.”
The “critical race theory” is known as a college-level academic framework that indicates racism is woven into the seams of American institutions. Kali personally encountered the theory when she attended graduate school and was disgusted by it.
District Officials Claimed Feedback To Critical Race Theory Lessons Was Positive
District officials wrote in a statement to the Washington Post regarding questions asked about the ethnic studies course. The statement indicated that “embedded in the lesson outcomes was the question for students to analyze whether or not race may be viewed as a contributor to one’s experiences.”
The district indicated that it conducted a survey with students that completed the ethnic studies class in 2022. According to the officials, the feedback and response from those surveyed “was overwhelmingly positive.”
Joshua Fontanilla Analyzed The ‘American Dream’ Unit Of English Curriculum
Kali’s husband Joshua reportedly did some thorough research of his own into the “American Dream” unit designed to be taught with the English curriculum. He personally researched the politics of each author featured within the curriculum.
According to the Washington Post, he concluded that at least 12 of 19 authors were recognized as “left-leaning.” According to Joshua’s opinion, that included “socialist” poet Langston Hughes and “leftist” historian Studs Terkel.
Joshua Also Noticed The Bias Perceived In School Regarding LGBT Community
Joshua mentioned to the Washington Post that he also noticed what he interpreted as bias within the school. For instance, his suspicions heightened when he noticed that announcements about meetings for the Gay-Straight Alliance Club were made directly over the loudspeakers.
On the contrary, many other clubs did not receive the same level of exposure. For instance, he specifically referenced his own chess group meetings that did not get announced to the students in the same way.
Kali Became Disillusioned With President Obama After $8.7 Billion Food Stamp Cut
Kali reportedly became disillusioned with President Barack Obama after he signed a law in 2014 that cut $8.7 billion in food stamps. The 2014 Farm Bill caused 850,000 households to lose an average amount of $90 per month, according to MSNBC.
At the time, Obama stated that the bipartisan bill was “going to make a big difference in communities across the country.” Kali indicated that her mother relied on food stamps to raise her and her siblings throughout her childhood years.
Joshua Admitted That He Started To Agree With Former President Trump’s Policies
Joshua also acknowledged that he started to agree with many of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. He focused specifically on the hardline stance that Trump made about immigration.
Kali wrote a letter directly to the School Board in the summer of 2021. She wrote that the district would “only harden the hearts of many of our students” if it continued to “move forward with all these divisive teachings.”
