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This has really got me to thinking...

A few more thoughts on midwest/great plains:
Housing costs-If I told you what people can buy a nice family home here for you would be shocked.

Schools-you won't have nearly the hassle you have had with Cali schools. Small town schools are much more likely to work with parents and ignore nonsense from the educrat establishment.

Economics-Everyone out here has a job. But few have really high paying jobs. Out here one has to make an effort to remain unemployed. On the downside there are few "California wage" type jobs. Still, a working guy can support a family. I have several friends and relatives in this situation. Wives take care of kids while Dad works. They don't starve, they watch their budget, but they don't "suffer" with only one wage.
A lot of the folks I know live outside the urban areas in Kansas. (like we have any real "urban" areas..hehe) They commute into KC or Wichita or Topeka. Generally within 15-30 minutes.

If I were seriously considering such a move I guess I might take a few short family trips. Take the kids to Texas or Raleigh, for example. While they are playing you can survey the situation. Talk to locals to get a feel for the community, jobs, hassles, bad neighborhoods, etc. Look for houses and jobs while you are there. What seems good on paper can blow up in your face, and it's much better to waste a week figuring this out than a spending a few years extracting yourself from a nightmare.

If I were seriously considering such a move I guess I might take a few short family trips. Take the kids to Texas or Raleigh, for example. While they are playing you can survey the situation. Talk to locals to get a feel for the community, jobs, hassles, bad neighborhoods, etc. Look for houses and jobs while you are there.

This is what we plan to do. I had been thinking of taking a job in Plano, or Raleigh but realized that we didn't really know the area. I want this to be our last move. We can afford to do this for a year or two and still have money for a down payment on a house. But I don't really know about the areas. I want the whole family to get a chance to see the place. So we're planning on visiting about two states a month and spending at least a couple of weeks in the areas we are most interested in. So only 25 states at most in a year. We can't see everything unfortunately. We live in a great big country!