EDUCATON(sic) Why Birmingham city schools hired Filipino teachers (Birmingham News AL)

[jody]

EDUCATON: Why Birmingham city schools hired Filipino teachers
By BARBARA S. ALLEN interim superintendent of Birmingham City Schools.

I understand why board members, and even a July 20 Birmingham News editorial (here), have raised questions about hiring teachers from overseas. I firmly believe it was in our students' best interest to place carefully selected Filipino teachers in classrooms rather than to have substitutes for months instead. In fact, a number of math and science positions remained unfilled the entire 2008-09 school year.

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There simply are not sufficient numbers of students majoring in math and science education to provide schools with the teachers they need. A nationwide shortage exists, and districts all over the nation have hired teachers from the Philippines, India and other countries. Alabama allows districts to hire people who have degrees in subject areas, but those teachers must take college courses and meet content testing requirements in order to remain in the classroom.

Critics have questioned why, with unemployment at the highest level in decades, we cannot fill all of our teacher positions with people from the Birmingham area or, at least, from neighboring states. Only those who have sufficient coursework in math and science can even be considered for math and science positions, leaving the majority of people who have lost their jobs without the necessary qualifications. Our human resources personnel say that only a small percentage of applicants without education degrees qualify.

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The Filipino teachers received H-1B visas, which are nonimmigrant visas that allow them to work in the U.S. for three years and can be extended up to six years total and, in some cases, beyond six years. It is true the district could be required to pay for return transportation costs if we terminate any of the teachers before the end of three years, but nationally, that has happened rarely because teachers generally find other districts to hire them instead of returning to their homelands.

Despite Allen’s explanation, Alabamians are not convinced her decision to in-source teachers is sound.

This incident is part of the overall unemployment situation for people with special skills including IT, engineering, science.

It’s difficult to convince blue/grey collar parents who helped their children through college to see their dreams come through for a professional career, that employers whether private or government are not hiring foreign professionals just to keep costs very low.

I also am not persuaded by Allen's assertions.