I recently moved from Austin to Portland voluntarily to retire in a lifestyle less hostile to the people living there. The quality of life in Texas is far from good.
Just to think you guys could have both moved out of shitty homeless-adjacent apartments into the inner suburbs and really saved some u-haul bills. No need to drive across Utah.
Generally politics, specifically state mandated school curriculum.
Right after we moved out, Oregon passed laws decriminalizing hard drugs and removed graduation requirements (and they are considering continuing waiving graduation requirements I hear). The Oregon teacher's association (and gov in general) got a sweet retirement deal in the 90's, that they "realized" that deal is draining the state of money it needs. The teachers association is trying to teach fewer hours each day (for the kids) and have more half days (once a week) for teacher prep (for the kids). One of my kids was directly saying teachers would talk up direct action activism the the like in class. Then the new curriculum came out that had sex ed starting in Kindergarten and had massive ideological components to them. This was in 2020 and it has continued unabated from there. These were state level activities; districts can't meaningfully push back; teachers could be fired for not adhering to them. I have family who are teachers so I don't speak from ignorance here.
Texas ISDs (independent school districts) also get funding from the state, but they get much more funding locally. Practically speaking, Texas ISDs vary much more. So do your research. Then support what is good and seek to improve to make it even better.
I'd like to consider myself of at least average intelligence if not slightly above, and I'll be damned if I could tell anyone what "retire in a lifestyle less hostile to the people living there" is supposed to actually mean.
