Moderate conservative immigrant family moving from Fairfax VA to Mountain View CA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

[Anonymous]

OP, have you explored with the company the opportunity to work remote full time and fly in infrequently? With the pandemic more and more people are turning down job offers unless remote work is offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you explored with the company the opportunity to work remote full time and fly in infrequently? With the pandemic more and more people are turning down job offers unless remote work is offered.

If OP's job offer is from the company I think it is, they don't allow FT wfh for most people. OP could live elsewhere and fly in every week, but that would be hard. I knew someone who did that at the same company. Eventually left. Too hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

NJ has better schools than DC or CA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

The vast majority of all kids from all states go to their local universities, so I do not think that is the apparent knock you think it is. And yes, DC people (at least on DCUM) sound extremely provincial when they talk about education. I'm sorry, but it is true. The absolute conviction they have that DC education is the best in the country is provincial. It just is. There is very little evidence to show that for all of this apparent educational superiority, DC-area kids do any better in life, but the way people talk on DCUM you'd think that kids were outside of the DMV are doomed to lives of menial labor.

You left California. Can't you see that colors your experience? As a thought exercise, what do you think many Silicon Valley residents think about education in DC? Do you think they consider it unabashedly superior the way DCUM does? Or do you think perhaps they consider DC schools to be moribund training grounds for stifling bureaucrats? Another example of perspective: we have an OP here who believes he can tell principals what to do in VA. That would not fly in CA. Is that truly educational superiority? Really?

What I am saying is that perspective matters here, and DCUM sounds provincial on education because of its absolutely unshakeable conviction of DMV education superiority even with no real evidence of lifetime superior outcomes or in the face of the fact that kids from across the country seem to do just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

NJ has better schools than DC or CA.

PP here.. absolutely, 100% agree.

Generally, "good" schools have lower FARMs rate, and this is true across the board in every state and school district. So, it's not fair to compare test scores, IMO, because a lot of that is dependent on SES and income.

But, I look at the expectations, classes and programs offered, and a lot of the Bay Area public schools don't have the variety of programs that many of the DC area schools do, and that's in part because of the fact that all of their school districts are small compared to FCPS, MCPS and even DCPS. Several years ago, Bay Area public schools had to do away with their GATE program (gifted) because of budget cuts. The parents had to fill in the gaps and create a nonprofit coop to provide GATE opportunities for high performing students. I looked into Cupertino school district (considered one of the top performing in the Bay Area) and was surprised to see how basic their offerings were at the time (may have changed since then). And every school district there wants parents to donate, and I don't mean your $35 PTA dues. I'm talking several hundreds to a $1000 per child. And every year, there was a bond measure in our "high performing" expensive school district to raise taxes for the schools. Maybe things have changed since then (a few years ago), but I had had it with tax increases, "donations", and subpar programming.


Expectations:

CA Graduation requirements:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/hs/cefhsgradreq.asp

Three years of English
Two years of mathematics (including Algebra I)
Three years of social science (including U.S. history and geography; world history, culture, and geography; one semester of American government; and one semester of economics)
Two years of science (including biology and physical science)
Two years of physical education
One year of foreign language or visual and performing arts or commencing with the 2012–13 school year, career technical education. For purpose of satisfying the minimum course requirement, a course in American Sign Language shall be deemed a course in foreign language

And I don't think CA has any SSL type requirements. WE certainly didn't have any when we (my siblings and I) went to HS in CA.

In VA, 4 years of English and 3 yrs of math is required. MD requires 4 years in both English and math now, same for DC.

Science: Va and MD requires 3 credits, DC requires 4. CA requires 2.

Obviously, there are many students in CA that go beyond the minimum requirement, and there are certainly very very smart kids there. But, the state's level of expectation and programming is subpar compared to the DC area.

There are some good school districts in CA, of course. But they tend to be in the very expensive areas that OP cannot afford, and they rely heavily on parent donations to offer interesting programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

The vast majority of all kids from all states go to their local universities, so I do not think that is the apparent knock you think it is. And yes, DC people (at least on DCUM) sound extremely provincial when they talk about education. I'm sorry, but it is true. The absolute conviction they have that DC education is the best in the country is provincial. It just is. There is very little evidence to show that for all of this apparent educational superiority, DC-area kids do any better in life, but the way people talk on DCUM you'd think that kids were outside of the DMV are doomed to lives of menial labor.

You left California. Can't you see that colors your experience? As a thought exercise, what do you think many Silicon Valley residents think about education in DC? Do you think they consider it unabashedly superior the way DCUM does? Or do you think perhaps they consider DC schools to be moribund training grounds for stifling bureaucrats? Another example of perspective: we have an OP here who believes he can tell principals what to do in VA. That would not fly in CA. Is that truly educational superiority? Really?

What I am saying is that perspective matters here, and DCUM sounds provincial on education because of its absolutely unshakeable conviction of DMV education superiority even with no real evidence of lifetime superior outcomes or in the face of the fact that kids from across the country seem to do just fine.

Most DC area parents agree that MA and NJ have the best schools districts.

Most SV residents who have never experienced schools outside of CA don't think *anything* about DC because most people in CA who have never left there don't know anything outside of CA public school system. That was me, too. I experienced both CA and DC area public schools. Have you?

What OP thinks they can do in CA schools is besides the point, but OP is clueless regardless. And I wasn't knocking on in state univ at all. I went to a public univ in CA.

[Anonymous]

Sf poster here. To OP if you are SE Asian and want to find similar the South Bay seems to have more SE Asian but East Bay does have some Asian population. It won’t be uncommon for your kids to find mirrors at parochial schools around the Bay Area. There are not really magnet schools in Marin, SF has charter schools, a few magnets in high school, there is Lowell (similar in some ways to TJ but since Covid has become lottery instead of testing in). Many highly rated public schools in SV, like a lot of publics there are 2 tracks, one is the AP route, going on to extremely competitive 4 year schools. I think a lot of your worries about schools in the Bay Area are not entirely true, we have 2 nieces that teach in Fairfax county public schools that have views considered very extreme by a lot of my teacher friends here, like not offering algebra in middle school and not having gifted and talented programs. Hopefully you join a great company out here that grows and worst case scenario you network and can easily find a new postion if you need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sf poster here. To OP if you are SE Asian and want to find similar the South Bay seems to have more SE Asian but East Bay does have some Asian population. It won’t be uncommon for your kids to find mirrors at parochial schools around the Bay Area. There are not really magnet schools in Marin, SF has charter schools, a few magnets in high school, there is Lowell (similar in some ways to TJ but since Covid has become lottery instead of testing in). Many highly rated public schools in SV, like a lot of publics there are 2 tracks, one is the AP route, going on to extremely competitive 4 year schools. I think a lot of your worries about schools in the Bay Area are not entirely true, we have 2 nieces that teach in Fairfax county public schools that have views considered very extreme by a lot of my teacher friends here, like not offering algebra in middle school and not having gifted and talented programs. Hopefully you join a great company out here that grows and worst case scenario you network and can easily find a new postion if you need to.

OP is on an HlB visa, so it's not that easy to jump around.

Closer in SV (Fremont, SJ, Cupertino, etc..) has a large Indian population, but OP can't afford close in.

Op will have to suck it up if they want to move to SV.

[Anonymous]

OP did not say he was on a HIB visa. That was another poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP did not say he was on a HIB visa. That was another poster.

And I think OP stated that this was correct.

[Anonymous]

You should definitely look for jobs in FL. Here's a parent who, among many other things, asked for the removal of rainbow flags at her daughter's school:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/02/08/floridas-new-parental-rights-law-tests-limits-and-patience-in-pasco/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Marin schools are comparable to FCPS. They may be the "best" in the SF area, but that's not saying much.

It is amazing how convinced DCUM is of extreme DMV educational superiority, and yet kids from around the country seem to do just fine in college and beyond. You would think that college, med school, and law school admissions only come from kids who grew up in the DMV the way that some of you talk.

OP, I don't think you are remotely a fit for California, but understand that DCUM often sounds very provincial when it comes to discussion of education.

The vast majority of CA kids go in state, which is great.. they have a great selection of in state univ to choose from.

I speak from experience having gone through CA public school myself and had a child go there for early ES and have friends in CA with kids in public school up to HS. My friends/family went to great univ in CA, became doctors, engineers, etc.. Obviously, CA public school students can and do do well in life.

But public schools in general in CA are inferior to the DC area. I knew someone who moved from NJ to CA (Peninsula) and was appalled by the "great" public schools there.

DC area is the opposite of provincial when it comes to education. Coming over from CA to the DC area, I felt provincial in my understand and expectations of public school.

The vast majority of all kids from all states go to their local universities, so I do not think that is the apparent knock you think it is. And yes, DC people (at least on DCUM) sound extremely provincial when they talk about education. I'm sorry, but it is true. The absolute conviction they have that DC education is the best in the country is provincial. It just is. There is very little evidence to show that for all of this apparent educational superiority, DC-area kids do any better in life, but the way people talk on DCUM you'd think that kids were outside of the DMV are doomed to lives of menial labor.

You left California. Can't you see that colors your experience? As a thought exercise, what do you think many Silicon Valley residents think about education in DC? Do you think they consider it unabashedly superior the way DCUM does? Or do you think perhaps they consider DC schools to be moribund training grounds for stifling bureaucrats? Another example of perspective: we have an OP here who believes he can tell principals what to do in VA. That would not fly in CA. Is that truly educational superiority? Really?

What I am saying is that perspective matters here, and DCUM sounds provincial on education because of its absolutely unshakeable conviction of DMV education superiority even with no real evidence of lifetime superior outcomes or in the face of the fact that kids from across the country seem to do just fine.

Most DC area parents agree that MA and NJ have the best schools districts.

Most SV residents who have never experienced schools outside of CA don't think *anything* about DC because most people in CA who have never left there don't know anything outside of CA public school system. That was me, too. I experienced both CA and DC area public schools. Have you?

What OP thinks they can do in CA schools is besides the point, but OP is clueless regardless. And I wasn't knocking on in state univ at all. I went to a public univ in CA.

You speak for “most” DC area parents now? And have you ever even been to the Bay Area? Most people there didn’t start there; the Bay Area has massive amounts of inward migration, I think population-wise more than DC. I would actually say there probably more people who have experience elsewhere in the Bay Area than in DC. So yes, there are many people in the Bay Area who could hold educated opinions on DC area education, and guess what, they might not all agree with you.

You are kind of a case in point of how DCUM sounds provincial on education. Your individual experience doesn’t actually represent the world, as it turns out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sf poster here. To OP if you are SE Asian and want to find similar the South Bay seems to have more SE Asian but East Bay does have some Asian population. It won’t be uncommon for your kids to find mirrors at parochial schools around the Bay Area. There are not really magnet schools in Marin, SF has charter schools, a few magnets in high school, there is Lowell (similar in some ways to TJ but since Covid has become lottery instead of testing in). Many highly rated public schools in SV, like a lot of publics there are 2 tracks, one is the AP route, going on to extremely competitive 4 year schools. I think a lot of your worries about schools in the Bay Area are not entirely true, we have 2 nieces that teach in Fairfax county public schools that have views considered very extreme by a lot of my teacher friends here, like not offering algebra in middle school and not having gifted and talented programs. Hopefully you join a great company out here that grows and worst case scenario you network and can easily find a new postion if you need to.

OP here. I don't think your nieces' views are extreme. Schools should have gifted programs in my opinion, I guess the information posted by 02/06/2022 10:07 is particularly worrying. Also those stories about prop 13 from 02/05/2022 12:38, forced promotion of LGBTQ values by 02/06/2022 14:32 and overall public school ranking by 02/05/2022 21:55 all together say that I won't be considering public schools in the Bay area - sure there might be some "acceptable" ones but I don't want to risk trying to find a needle in the haystack.

Anonymous wrote:You should definitely look for jobs in FL. Here's a parent who, among many other things, asked for the removal of rainbow flags at her daughter's school:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/02/08/floridas-new-parental-rights-law-tests-limits-and-patience-in-pasco/

While their politics would be fitting for me, I have no clue about their quality of education. Anyway I don't have a job offer from FL at this point as I said before, my choices are either go somewhere to Bay area or decline the offer and stay here.