Why would a British counsellor with a PhD work at a public California high school?

Public schools in the U.S. are funded by both state and local taxes with the federal government providing some subsidies. So, a school system’s funding will be based on its surrounding location’s tax base. That being said, there are some areas of the U.S. where the public schools are better funded and of better quality than private schools in other areas. Their are schools in some areas that can not afford physical education, an athletics program, a music program, an arts program, all things that are portrayed in the fictional high school. A school in a wealthy county like Santa Clara County (median household income of $116,178 a year) is going to be way better funded than a school in a poor county like Lake County (median household income of $40,446 a year). Even though they are both in the state of California.

The majority of the kids portrayed in this series are from upper middle class families. Some of them are from affluent families. And, some of them are from poor families. The amount of income of the families will determine how much income tax they pay. The value of their houses will determine how much property tax they pay. Considering some of the parents are professionals who own their own businesses and live in multi-million dollar homes (this is California we are speaking about after all), we can expect that the school system is not poorly funded.

Case-in-point, look how many of the 16-18 year old kids have their own cars compared to the number of kids who have their own jobs. Some of those cars are high-end cars that they have received from their parents just because the parents can afford it. And, a parent that can afford to buy a high-end car for their kids has the choice to send them to a better funded public school, a private school, or move to a more affluent area with better schools.

Anecdotally, I went to public high school in a middle to upper-middle class, blue collar neighborhood in Northernwestern Illinois (not Chicago). Our high school had three science and math teachers with PhDs. We had at least two school administrators with doctorates of education. And, many more of the admin and teaching staff had masters level graduate degrees. We even had foreign teachers who were naturalized citizens or permanent resident aliens (mainly in math, sociology, and foreign language studies). And, none of us lived in multi-million dollar (adjusted for inflation) homes.

In the neighborhood in which I live now, more than half of the adults have some type of foreign accent, are first generation Americans, or are permanent resident aliens of foreign nationality (no exaggeration). My wife included. They still work and have jobs. Statistically, one of them might be a high school counselor. I even know of a couple of British citizens who work at my local WalMart. Why would it be unrealistic to hire a Brit to stock shelves at a poorly-funded retailer?

If someone had the credentials to work in the U.S. and the skills to counsel adolescents, why would it be unrealistic for them to work as a counselor in a California high school? It would be the perfect situation for someone who enjoyed child psychology and counseling enough to study and research it to that level.

Plus, her job and education were probably not the reason for her being in the U.S. in the first place. She was probably living in California already. Maybe brought here by an American spouse or as a child by her British parents. She needed a job. She had the qualifications. So, she applied and got the job despite her nationality or accent. It is not like a California school would go out of their way to recruit a counselor living in England when there are plenty of qualified candidates in their own backyard. The visa hassle would not be worth it. The school would not pay them any more than their American counterparts with the same education and credentials. And, the teachers union would very strongly and aggressively protest. After all, it is a government (city, county, state) job.