The Minnesota Education Equity Partnership (MnEEP) is an educational organization rooted in the ideas of critical race theory and racial equity. ¹ It offers consultations and professional development training to schools interested in adopting curriculums more in line with critical race narratives. ²

Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, MnEEP purports to use a “race equity lens to transform educational institutions, organizations, and leaders” in a way that will “ensure that students of color and American Indian students” succeed. ³

MnEEP works with many public K-12 schools as well as private schools and museums. ⁴

Background

It was formed in 1996 as Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. ⁵ In fiscal year 2016, it changed its name to Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. ⁶

Activities

Resources

One of MnEEP’s online resources is its “Big Bold Goals for Building Race Equity.” These include encouraging Minnesota schools and communities to create institutions with “race equity” missions; bring “BIPOC students” into better relationships with their teachers; be “culturally responsive”; embrace multilingualism by valuing the “home language” of “Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian students”; and make Minnesota higher education systems “racially just.” ⁷

MnEEP has a “Race Equity Glossary” on its website that defines terms related to race equity and concepts related to critical race theory. It includes terms such as “Critical Race Theory,” “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” “Decolonize,” “Ethnocentrism,” “Institutional Racism,” “Post-Colonial Theory,” “Race Consciousness,” “Structural Racism,” “White Fragility,” and “White Privilege.” ⁸

MnEEP released annual reports documenting its progress and development. These documents contain politically charged statements, such as the claim in its 2019 report that discrimination had recently “grown in ferocity” and that “Muslims, Central American migrants and Transgender people” were being marginalized in the United States. ⁹

Services

MnEEP offers services to its clients (mostly schools) concerning racial equity awareness. These include “PELSB-Certified Cultural Competency Training;” info sessions on history, data, and trends; training educators in race equity counternarratives; communication strategies on race equity; and advisory and research on race equity. MnEEP additionally offers strategic planning, race equity-based policy analysis, professional development, advising on “race equity-based activities,” “digital equity training,” and equity-informed “systems change.” ¹⁰ The services team is led by its “race equity professionals”: associate executive director Jennifer Godinez, senior systems fellow Rose Chu, and program consultants Leiataua Dr. Jon Peterson and Lanise Block. ¹¹

Advocacy for Critical Race Theory

The Minnesota Education Equity Partnership explicitly defends and promotes critical race theory. In December 2021 and January 2022, MnEEP hosted a two-part virtual talk “debunking misinformation” regarding critical race theory for teachers and school leaders that aimed to “deepen their understanding of what Critical Race Theory is, and what it isn’t.” It sorted participants into breakout groups to “better understand CRT” and have them “recommit to building racial equity in education.” ¹² For those who could not attend the first talks, MnEEP hosted them again in February 2022. ¹³

In its “Race Equity Glossary,” MnEEP positively defines “Critical Race Theory” in the following way: ¹⁴

Recognizes that racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of the American society. The individual racist need not exist to note that institutional racism is pervasive in the dominant culture. CRT identifies that these power structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color. CRT also rejects the traditions of liberalism and meritocracy. Legal discourse says that the law is neutral and color blind, however, CRT challenges this legal “truth” by examining liberalism and meritocracy as a vehicle for self-interest, power, and privilege.

Funding

Minnesota Education Equity Partnership is funded by several foundations and donors, such as the 3M Foundation, Bush Foundation, General Mills Foundation, Joyce Family Foundation, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Travelers Foundation, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Youthprise. ¹⁵

Leadership

Minnesota politician Carlos Mariani Rosa is the executive director of Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. He is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives representing St. Paul since 1991. ¹⁶

MnEEP associate director Jennifer Godinez, who also sits on its race equity professional team, has sat on the boards of several nonprofits in the past and is a German Marshall Fellow of the German Marshall Fund. ¹⁷

MnEEP’s board of directors includes officers Bernadeia Johnson, a faculty member at Minnesota State University Mankato; Josefina Landrieu, senior director of equity and inclusion at Metropolitan State University; Courtney Caldwell, equity transformation specialist at Pacific Educational Group; Tricia Wilkinson, who works at the University of Minnesota and TRIO Upward Bound; and Bryan E. Bass, president of DeLaSalle High School. ¹⁸

1. “What is Critical Race Theory? Join MnEEP for a Virtual Series on February 9^th.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/what-is-critical-race-theory-join-mneep-for-a-virtual-series-on-february-9th/.
2. “Services.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/services
3. “Home.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/.
4. ^[1] “Members and Partners.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/about/members/.
5. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (2013 Form 990). Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. Line C. Accessed 7 February 2022.
6.  Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (2016 Form 990). Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Line C. Accessed 7 February 2022.
7. “Home.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/.
8.  “Race Equity Glossary.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/word/.
9. “2018-2019 Annual Report.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MnEEP-AR-2019-final-.pdf.
10. “Services.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/services.
11. “Services.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/services.
12. “What is Critical Race Theory? Join MnEEP for a virtual series on January 12^th.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, 29 November 2021. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/what-is-critical-race-theory-join-mneep-for-a-two-part-series-on-december-8th-and-january-12th/.
13.  “What is Critical Race Theory? Join MnEEP for a Virtual Series on February 9^th.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, 24 January 2022. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/what-is-critical-race-theory-join-mneep-for-a-virtual-series-on-february-9th/.
14. “Critical Race Theory.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/word/critical-race-theory/.
15. ^[1] “Members and Partners.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/about/members/.
16. “Carlos Mariani Rosa.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022. https://www.mneep.org/author/carlos/.
17. “Jennifer Godinez.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022.  https://www.mneep.org/author/jennifer/.
18.  “Our Board.” Minnesota Education Equity Partnership. Accessed 7 February 2022.   https://www.mneep.org/about/our-board/.