TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Students at a rural middle school will lose half their teachers due to a new federal visa policy that makes it too expensive for school districts to retain international educators.
The J-1 visa helps Arizona districts fill classrooms with qualified international teachers. Teachers can then apply for a longer-term H-1B visa, but new requirements make this visa too expensive for rural districts.
Arizona relies on the exchange program to alleviate its teacher shortage. There are currently more than 440 international teachers in Arizona classrooms.
In September, the Trump administration increased the H-1B visa’s processing fee to $100,000, an impossible cost for school districts.
Teacher shortage hits rural district hard
Arizona’s teacher shortage hit crisis levels during the pandemic. Many rural schools found a solution overseas.
Cerelo Flores, the fourth-grade team lead at Indian Oasis Intermediate School, came from the Philippines to teach on the Tohono O’odham reservation.
“I know that when we came in here, we shifted the social culture of the kids – the academic culture,” Flores said.
He is one of 20 international teachers in the rural Baboquivari School District who must leave in the next two years. That’s one-third of classroom teachers and 50% of staff at the Intermediate School.
“It is going to be difficult to find new teachers to come to our school because we’re a rural district,” said JoLynn Begay-Lewis, Indian Oasis Intermediate School Principal.
Students face academic disruption
Sixth-grade team lead Irene Gilua hasn’t told her students about her departure yet.
“I don’t want them to think about that sadness as we go along,” said Gilua, another teacher from the Philippines.
She worries about what it will mean for their academics.
“If teachers leave, students lose the consistency, the trust, and the relationship that takes years to build, so it’s hard,” Gilua said.
Principal Begay-Lewis and district leaders are seeking a solution.
“We’re hoping by some miracle maybe they’ll be able to stay longer,” Begay-Lewis said.
Doctors working in rural areas can apply for an exemption to the visa’s processing fee. School district officials are hoping the federal government will consider an exemption for teachers as well, but so far, there is no word on the subject.
Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corpsmember covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
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