Some Alaska school districts say they can’t afford to hire and retain international teachers after the Trump administration hiked fees for highly skilled worker visas.
Alaska school districts have increasingly hired international teachers through the H-1B visa program amid an ongoing teacher shortage. Until last September, the annual fee for such visas was $5,000 per person. Now it is $100,000 under an executive order by the Trump administration.
Alaska districts this year have several hundred international teachers in their classrooms as they struggle to recruit U.S. residents to teach.
State legislators are considering a resolution urging the federal government to waive the fee for hiring new teachers under the program, which they say imposes impossible financial burdens on Alaska districts.
“This is insurmountable,” said Anchorage Rep. Alyse Galvin, the sponsor of the resolution, which the House approved last month, sending the measure to the Senate for consideration.
The H-1B visa program provides non-immigrant visas for U.S. employers to recruit highly skilled workers, with at least a bachelor’s degree, in fields such as healthcare, technology or education. The visa is valid for up to six years.
Alaska districts also rely on the as well as the J-1 visa, a cultural exchange visa program to fill essential teacher positions, especially in rural parts of the state. The J-1 visa is valid for three years, with the possibility to extend for one or two years. Districts and teachers work with third-party recruitment agencies to apply for visas and in recent years, have shifted to H-1B visas for teachers to help them stay for longer periods of time.
The Trump administration has also changed the guidance for J-1 visa-holding teachers placements, requiring certain access to medical care, banking and transportation services — effectively barring placements in schools in many small, rural Alaska communities.
Currently districts are in the process of recruiting and hiring new teachers. As they renew or transfer H-1B visas for next year, they say they cannot afford the $100,000 fee per person.
Lisa Parady, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, which supports districts with hiring and recruitment efforts, said there are close to 600 international teachers working in Alaska and 341 of them use H-1B visas.
“Without these educators, class sizes increase, course offerings shrink, student services are reduced, and student outcomes suffer,” said Parady. “International educators are not a luxury. They are an essential part of Alaska’s education workforce.”
There were 345 certified teacher openings on the first day of school this year. Currently there are over 900 openings for teachers and staff posted on the job board run by the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center, a division of the Alaska Council of School Administrators.
“Districts would be forced into the impossible choice: Pay millions in visa fees and cut student programs or grow without teachers and leave classrooms uncovered. Neither option is acceptable for our students and children in Alaska,” Parady said.
Rural districts may be hit the hardest with the visa changes.
In the Bering Strait School District, which serves 15 schools across the Bering Sea coast and island communities, 40% of teachers are international hires, Superintendent Terri Dodd told lawmakers.
Dodd said the district will lose 14 teachers as their J-1 visas expire this year, and the H-1B visa fee makes it impossible to hire international teachers for those positions.
“If we had to replace them with H-1B (visas) that are $100,000 each, there’s just no way we can do that,” she said. “So we’re going to have to see what that holds for us. I’m sure some of those positions we won’t fill because of budget cuts and things like that. But that’s something on our minds.”
The U.S. Department of State changed the guidance for J-1 visa placement agencies and visa-holding teachers last year, which could make it even tougher for rural school districts to fill teaching positions, according to Jennifer Schmitz, the director of the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center.
The center helps districts with the process of international hiring and recruitment of teachers, also supporting them transition into their new roles, particularly in remote schools in rural Alaska.
“J-1 teachers have to be assigned to locations that have reliable access to medical care, banking services, groceries, transportation, emergency response, things like that,” she said.
“And so they haven’t gone to the extent where they’re making the J-1 teachers in rural Alaska leave, but they’re not able to extend or stay longer, and we can’t put any new J-1 teachers out there, which is the biggest part of the problem,” she said.
For the Kuspuk School District, which spans the middle Kuskokwim River region in Western Alaska, more than 60% of teachers are international hires through the two visa programs, according to Superintendent Madeline Aguillard.
Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, have requested a visa waiver for teachers, and Murkowski has introduced legislation to exempt public schools from the $100,000 fee. Sullivan signed on as a co-sponsor.
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