A Christian married couple quit their teaching jobs in California and started an ‘anti-woke’ school in Florida as a ‘counterbalance’ to progressive teaching which they claim has infiltrated the public education system.
Kali Fontanilla, 41, and her husband Joshua, 42, started the Exodus Institute, an online school, after becoming disillusioned by ‘overly politicized’ public schooling.
Kali and Joshua now teach classes designed around ‘traditional American values’ – and try to counter what they believe are skewed teachings about topics like gender, race and slavery in traditional schools.
The Fontanillas’ school has grown from a single student in their first class, in May 2022, to nearly 200 who are enrolled across their K-12 program and a separate ‘Young Patriots Academy’.
Their institute was founded amid growing discontent among conservatives nationwide about the perceived politicization of school curriculums. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has supported several state bills aimed at curbing the trend, including the Stop WOKE act.
Kali Fontanilla, 41, and her husband Joshua, 42, started the Exodus Institute, an online school, after becoming disillusioned by ‘overly politicized’ public schooling
‘I’d say that in general, being a conservative or just somebody who believes in traditional American values is something that makes you kind of endangered or marked in the public school system,’ Joshua told DailyMail.com.
‘It’s gotten to the point in public schools where you can’t just mind your own business and keep your politics to yourself, because they push it on everyone that you have to participate in liberal politics.’
Kali started as a public school teacher aged 22 and taught English in the Salinas school district, around 100 miles south of San Francisco. Joshua also worked in Salinas, a city in the Democrat county of Monterey.
The couple both have mixed ethnic backgrounds. Kali is half black and half white, while her husband is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.
Describing the beginning of her teaching career, Kali said: ‘There are a lot of things teachers didn’t have to face at that time.
‘There wasn’t pressure to put pronouns in your bio, or in your email [signature]… there wasn’t pressure to ask your students about their pronouns. There weren’t co-workers claiming their white privilege.’
For Kari, the politics issues she saw creeping in public schools became more prominent following George Floyd‘s murder in May 2020.
She said that several months after Floyd’s death, the superintendent of the school district emailed her about a ‘gift for black teachers’, which included a mask emblazoned with ‘black educators matter’.
‘I don’t want to be recognized for my skin color, I want to be recognized for the work I have done as a teach in the classroom,’ Kali said.
‘What if a white teacher wore a ‘white educators matter’ mask?
‘It’s also making a political statement. Me wearing a black educators matter mask is a political statement.’
As the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools across America, Kali and Joshua decided to leave their jobs and relocate from the West Coast to Florida, drawn partly by the state’s efforts to keep progressive politics out of schools.
The Exodus Institute was established in October 2021 with the motto ‘Exit Public Education’.
Joshua said: ‘It’s a counter, it’s anti-woke and it’s refuting the lies that are taught by the left. But really it’s just going back to traditional American values.’
Around 80 students are currently enrolled in the school’s accredited K-12 program, which includes lessons in subjects including math, science, French and business.
A still from a lesson delivered by Kali Fontanilla about the American dream. ‘I’m trying to dispel the myth that the American dream is only for white Americans,’ Kali tells her students
Joshua Fontanilla begins a class about the issues of cancel culture and systemic racism
The cost ranges from $2,000-per-year up to $8,000-per-year. Parents can also take advantage of voucher programs in some states to cover the cost.
The second strand of Exodus is its Young Patriots Academy, which is a $29-a-month supplementary course targeted at parents who homeschool.
‘Focused on critical thinking, writing skills, and reading comprehension, but what really makes this program different is our emphasis on refuting the lies taught in most public schools,’ according to a description on the Exodus website.
The Young Patriots Academy includes more than 100 pre-recorded lessons which include broad subjects like race and culture, and also more specific topics like a lesson about the American dream.
In a clip from the American dream class shared with DailyMail.com, Kali tells students: ‘I’m trying to dispel the myth that the American dream is only for white Americans, like what they are trying to push on you guys in the mainstream media, or they’re trying to push in our public schools.’
Exodus Institute is still in its early stages and Kali currently supplements her income from the venture by also serving as a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative non-profit.
But Kali and Joshua hope that they can continue to grow the number of students – and their offering – to provide courses internationally and in multiple languages.
‘The more students that join us, the more we can expand,’ Joshua said.
