Groundwork

San Jose, California is home. I want San Jose to be the best place for children to grow and families to thrive.

 

Unfortunately, through decades of policy choices, San Jose is now uniquely designed to crush families.

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According to research by Raj Chetty, San Jose used to be one of the premier places for social mobility in the United States. Today, it is facing generational decline seen in precipitous drops in the child population, as measured by K12 student enrollment. Three seemingly unrelated facts tell the story. 

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• Births in Santa Clara County are down a third since 1990. This is in the same decades the region built one of the wealthiest economies on Earth. Prosperity and family formation are moving in opposite directions here, and the correlation with housing costs is almost total.

• Zero students. That's how many kids across San Jose's three major high school districts completed a registered pre-apprenticeship last year. Zero. None. The routes to opportunity through trades and non-college options are non-existent at scale, without passage through extensive postsecondary systems. 

• Ten years out, 45% of college graduates are working in jobs that never required a degree. And the average America college graduate carries a debt burden of $35,500, an economically deadly anchor in the highest cost metro area in the United States. The debt was real. The payoff wasn't.

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​Housing will not be fixed in time for the kids in school right now. The only system that can still change their trajectory before they graduate is education, but it isn't built for that job.​

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The Groundwork for a thriving San Jose is organizing parents and families around a shared notion of prosperity. Good schools, vibrant parks, plentiful city youth programs, and pathways to viable careers without debt. 

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Curious? Let's talk.