Such schools are "public" in name only. Tuition payments are buried inside high home prices, extra taxes, parental donations, and small armies of parental volunteers.
These parents are intent on policing the boundaries, lest a child whose parents haven't paid the "tuition" reap the same advantages as their own child. Hell hath no fury like an upscale parent who thinks another kid is getting an unfair advantage by sneaking in under the fence.
The other part of this larger story is that a growing number of kids on the other side of the fence are Hispanic, Latino, and African American. Most babies born in California are now minorities. The rest of the nation isn't far behind.
According to the 2010 census, Orinda is 82.4 percent white and 11.4 percent Asian. Only 4.6 percent of its inhabitants are Hispanic or Latino, of any race. All of its elementary schools get 10 points on the GreatSchools 10-point rating system.
Bay Point, where Vivian's grandmother lives, is 41.4 percent white, 54.9 percent Hispanic or Latino of any race, and 11.6 percent African America. Bay Point's elementary schools are rated 2 to 4 on GreatSchools' 10-point scale.
Many of the people who live in places like Bay Point tend the gardens and care for the children of the people who live in places like Orinda.
But Orinda is intent on patrolling its border.
The nation's attention is focused on the border separating the United States from Mexico, and on people who have crossed that border and taken up residence here illegally.
But the boundary separating white Anglo upscale school districts from the burgeoning non-white and non-Anglo populations in downscale communities is fast becoming a flashpoint inside America.
In both cases, the central question is who are "we."
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