Moderate conservative immigrant family moving from Fairfax VA to Mountain View CA
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Anonymous
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So we're a family with two kids, 5th and 6th graders at Fairfax County Public Schools. We are a family of immigrants, and have decent jobs here in Fairfax, but I now have been offered a job that pays well with a tech company in Mountain View CA. The salary is about $200K which is enough to rent a decent townhome there, but probably not enough to afford private school.
I've lived in the Bay area about 10 years ago and loved it. However we are a family with moderate-conservative values, and our main concern is the bad reputation of California public schools in a deep blue state. We don't mind our kids wearing a mask. But we don't want our kids to walk into the classroom and get mandatory social justice lectures, have the rainbow flag alongside with the American flag in the classroom, being asked about their pronouns and learn divisive concepts like those in the infamous bingo game. And of course we want in-person learning, not unions closing schools "because it's not safe". We are relatively ok with FCPS here in Virginia despite the controversies around, and California's schools are the only thing that is giving us second thoughts about accepting the job offer. But my sense is that moving into a high-income area like Mountain View or Palo Alto shouldn't be that bad, i.e. it won't be like moving to Los Angeles. Can someone shed some light on this? Should I take the job and move my family there, or decline and stay with FCPS schools? Please no political debates, just want to compare FCPS with schools in high-income areas in the Bay Area. Thanks |
Anonymous
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Former Bay Area resident who worked in MV for 10 years.
First off -- "the salary is about $200K which is enough to rent a decent townhome there, " -- are you sure you can afford a TH around there on $200K? You might want to check again. Maybe you mean a rental? CA schools as a whole are under funded. Expect to shell out $1K a year for "donations". As for the liberal education, I can't speak to that since I moved out when the kids were young, but since there are a ton of immigrants out in SV, the overall vibe is not uber progressive like SF city. But, if you are going to work for a tech company out in SV, you can expect some uber liberal ideals in the workplace. I see the pronouns now in the profiles of coworkers (I still work with people there), and their HR policies are pretty liberal. I would check out the school and district websites to see what they are pushing. |
Anonymous
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Housing prices are crazy there. Unfortunately $200k doesn’t go far. Is the other spouse eligible/open to working as well?
I left the area nearly twenty years ago, and all my friends who stayed put their kids in catholic schools. That may be one way to buffer yourselves from the more extreme liberalism. |
Anonymous
| That salary is nothing close to being enough to afford to live in the Bay Area. Liberal ideas are the least of your problems. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Yes I am talking about renting. No plans to buy a house.
Spouse is eligible to work and has a bachelor's degree, but has not found anything concrete at the moment. I assume she can find something to make an extra $60K or so. What are those $1K "donations"? I don't care about uber liberal ideals in the workplace, I just ignore them and care about my business. What I do care is about my kids though. Even if my spouse works, bringing our income to $250K-ish, not sure if we can afford catholic school. Don't see anything out of the ordinary in the public school webpages (other than the usual "equity" stuff), but I would like to hear a first-hand experience on SV public school system. |
Anonymous
+1. I am from the Bay Area and actually like the politics there, and I would not move back for that salary. Everything is more expensive so your buying power is less. Cost and schools are two of the three reasons I live in Fairfax instead (the third is climate change / fires). I can't speak to CA public schools because all my friends there put their kids in private school. The one I know using public is in Marin. |
Anonymous
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I’m one of the pps who says you can’t afford it. Even with your spouse working. We make twice the amount you mentioned and are desperately looking to get out. We own, but rents are not markedly different from mortgage payments in most parts of the Bay Area.
The more socially conservative parts of the BA are also going to be further out, so you should negotiate for at least some remote work to save yourself a miserable commute. You’ll want to look at Walnut Creek, the Lamorinda area, and anywhere inland. The further east you are the more conservative, as a general rule. But I am serious when I tell you that salary is not going to get you the quality of life you think it will. |
Anonymous
The company does partial remote, so I will need to commute maybe twice per week. So renting a bit further out is not something I would not consider. I'd rather not go much inland though. Might consider renting further south, like Santa Cruz or near San Jose if it makes difference in rent. But I still want a safe neighborhood (like here in Fairfax), and my kids not brainwashed with liberal ideologies in school, and just learn their math, language arts etc. |
Anonymous
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I can tell you about specific public schools in MV if that's what you want. There are two public middle schools, multiple elementary schools, and two choice elementary schools. The high school district is different than the middle school and elementary district.
There are many families just like yours in MV. I haven't heard of any teacher obligating asking of pronouns, but some kids probably offer them. The population is very diverse. This $1k obligatory donation PP is talking about is completely untrue. I do not think they say the pledge of allegiance in the classrooms but I think that has been true for many years afaik (like since the 90s). There aren't rainbow flags in classrooms by policy, but it is possible individual teachers may have one (I have no idea why you would be so triggered by that, though, and I'm doubting the resiliency of you and your kids with that comment). MV is filled with extremely hard working immigrants, some of whom have done very well for themselves and their families, and they tend to value education. That is reflected in the school population and what happens in the schools. What else do you want to know? |
Anonymous
I don't want to reply to that "resiliency" comment, but what I do want to know is if I get a teacher putting the rainbow flag besides the American flag in the classroom, will I be able to report this to the principal and have the flag taken down? At least here in Fairfax, things are somewhat moderate and we are generally ok with the public school system. Again I don't want to discuss about my family's values and beliefs, we are who we are. I just don't want to get my kids into an ultra-progressive public school system which is not consistent with our values. |
Anonymous
PP who suggested you go to the eastern and inland areas of the BA again. I'm not interested in arguing with you about your politics. I am an expert on California's political climate though and have written many papers and books on the state and on Silicon Valley, in particular. I have lived in the Bay Area and in DC for over three decades. Based on what you just stated, the places where you would want to live in California will be mostly in the inland, north, and far southeast areas of the state. (Santa Cruz, which you suggested is literally the opposite of the kind of community you seek.) The southern portions of San Jose/Gilroy will be more in your price range, but they aren't especially safe areas and the politics there aren't as conservative as you would like. To the extent they are conservative, at least some portion of that conservatism is anti-immigrant, which would not really help you. Also, FYI - you say you consider yourself a moderate conservative, but in California most moderate conservatives embrace LGBT rights. By California standards, you are not moderate. You are conservative, full stop. I'm not saying this to insult you, but to help you understand how to find what you want. FWIW - There are very few places in the Bay Area where even the conservatives would freak out about the presence of a rainbow flag in a classroom. (Frankly, I think that your views aren't even as accepted as you might believe in Fairfax.) I can't think of a single community in the Bay Area where a parent could demand something like that - e.g., take down a rainbow flag - without it turning into a major fight that you would most likely lose. That said, I think you can find communities here where the liberal politics aren't as "in your face," where the schools are excellent, and where immigrants are welcome. For that, I repeat my recommendation to go through the tunnel to the Lamorinda area (Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Danville, etc.). The other place you could go would be outside Sacramento, but that's way too long for commute. You'd also find a similar fit in the Bakersfield/San Joaquin Valley, but that commute is also brutal. The easy way to do this is to get out a map and look at the counties and cities where Trump won. Those places are where you will most likely find people with views similar to yours, though they may also be anti-immigrant, which is just something you'll have to navigate. |
Anonymous
+1 Ouch. Politics are the least of your worries, OP. Re: schools, families are asked to make large donations each year to fund music/art programs, etc. Public schools are crazy underfunded because of Prop 13. Not sure why CA doesn't repeal that... |
Anonymous
What's wrong with a rainbow flag? |
Anonymous
I'm the PP who mentioned the $1K "donation". It is a donation, not obligatory, but it funds things that we take for granted in the DC area. As I stated, I lived in SV area (Peninsula area to be specific), and that's what every school district there did.. they had parents "donate" to fund things like art and PE. In MV, they use the funds for things like chromebooks and PSAT (both are free in our school district in DC area). https://mvlafoundation.org/what-we-fund/ https://mvlafoundation.org/donate/ I grew up in CA, went to school there. Public education there is vastly underfunded since Prop 13 (I'm old, and remember when this hit the public schools). |
Anonymous
Forgot to put the other MV foundation. When I moved to the DC area, I was floored that we didn't have to "donate" to pay for the below, and it was part of the services already provided by the schools. https://www.mvef.org/home-early-2021 Funds: Music and Art: Weekly classes by CSMA for TK-5th Instrument purchases and repair for elementary and middle schools Art supply kits for all elementary school students Science: Living Classroom instruction and hands-on plant science lessons at all elementary schools Environmental science education with field trips in the 4th and 5th grade, plus one middle school trip I Elementary STEAM room supplies for hands-on and high-quality science education Middle School Sports and Electives: Interscholastic athletics including coaches, referees, and transportation to competitions Middle school science and elective supplies for teachers Teacher Stipends for Clubs |