A local group called The Exodus Minnesota is hosting an alternative education expo. The Exodus is run by five black moms who want to show other families in the Twin Cities the benefits to alternative education. The website explains that the group believes public schools have become “centers of racist indoctrination.”
Organizer Kofi Montzka told The Minnesota Sun that the expo is going to showcase different education options for parents. Montzka said that the expo will feature two sessions, the first of which will have speakers who have done varying school options such as private school, micro-schooling, homeschooling, and their experiences with those alternative education options. The second session will be a parent panel along with a financial planner to help parents navigate affordability.
The expo was initially scheduled for January 14 but was postponed due to inclement weather. Montzka told The Sun that the group will be posting an update to the website and the Eventbrite page once the event is rescheduled.
Montzka told The Sun that Exodus Minnesota wants to help improve the school system, assist parents in choosing the best school for their children, and fight against Critical Race Theory (CRT).
Montzka said, “One of our goals was to fight against CRT and what it stands for. We think it’s incredibly racist against black people and other people of color. It creates a narrative that we are helpless victims and we don’t believe that’s true. We do believe there are racist people but we don’t believe that there are racist systems.”
She called those beliefs harmful and detrimental to success, saying that she believes the education system’s failure to teach is directly linked to rising crime rates.
She added that schools are a large part of that problem.
She said, “Schools are the main people pushing that narrative. I am concerned about the quality of public education and the values they are trying to teach our kids.”
Montzka said she believes public schools should focus on teaching reading and writing “because they already can barely do that” and leave other things for parents. She said she does not want to “co-parent” with schools.
One of the initiatives that the group is working on is called an “education savings account,” which would require a portion of the per-student allotted tax dollars to follow them to the school of their choice, whether it is homeschooling, private schooling, or another alternative version of schooling.
Montzka told The Sun that education savings accounts stayed in the budget for the longest time period during the last legislative session, but that the group cannot wait on the government any longer. She said the group decided that it needs to start equipping parents to make positive changes in their children’s education now.
“A mass exodus from public schools is what I would consider to be a success,” Montzka said, when asked what goals The Exodus organization has. “At this point we’ve been trying to work with public schools and they haven’t been listening. The unions are part of the problem. We respect parents’ choices and if parents want to get out, we need to help them get out. If schools started improving because students were leaving, that would also be a success.”
Montzka encouraged parents who want to look for alternative options for education to get connected to The Exodus and watch for an updated event date for its education expo.
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
