Dana Goldstein has an article in this morning’s New York Times about how some states and districts are filling teacher vacancies caused by low pay. They are hiring teachers from other nations on temporary work visas to whom an American salary looks princely.
The latest wave of foreign workers sweeping into American jobs brought Donato Soberano from the Philippines to Arizona two years ago. He had to pay thousands of dollars to a job broker and lived for a time in an apartment with five other Filipino workers. The lure is the pay — 10 times more than what he made doing the same work back home.
But Mr. Soberano is not a hospitality worker or a home health aide. He is in another line of work that increasingly pays too little to attract enough Americans: Mr. Soberano is a public school teacher.
As walkouts by teachers protesting low pay and education funding shortfalls spread across the country, the small but growing movement to recruit teachers from overseas is another sign of the difficulty some districts are having providing the basics to public school students.
Among the latest states hit by the protests is Arizona, where teacher pay is more than $10,000 below the national average of $59,000 per year. The Pendergast Elementary School District, where Mr. Soberano works, has recruited more than 50 teachers from the Philippines since 2015. They hold J-1 visas, which allow them to work temporarily in the United States, like au pairs or camp counselors, but offer no path to citizenship. More than 2,800 foreign teachers arrived on American soil last year through the J-1, according to the State Department, up from about 1,200 in 2010.
“In these times, you have to be innovative and creative in recruiting,” said Patricia Davis-Tussey, Pendergast’s head of human resources. “We embrace diversity and really gain a lot from the cultural exchange experience. Our students do as well.”
The district, which covers parts of Glendale, Avondale and north Phoenix, is a hotbed of activism in the teacher walkout movement, known as #RedforEd. Picketing educators say they have had to move in with their parents, apply for food stamps and pay out of pocket for classroom essentials like graph paper and science supplies. They argue that taxes are too low to adequately fund schools, or for teachers to secure a middle-class lifestyle.
In response to the teacher walkout, Republican lawmakers introduced a budget that provides new funding for salaries and classrooms. But leaders of the #RedForEd movement said the bill fell far short of their demands, and would restore only about a quarter of the $1.1 billion in annual cuts that they say schools have weathered since the last recession.
In Pendergast, where salaries of around $40,000 are a source of pain and protest for the district’s American educators, Mr. Soberano is thankful for the pay.
Much like other foreign workers, he went into debt to find a job in the United States. He said he used savings and a bank loan to pay $12,500, about three years’ worth of his salary in the Philippines, to Petro-Fil Manpower Services. That is a Filipino company of Ligaya Avenida, a California-based consultant who recruits and screens teachers for the J-1.
The payment covered Mr. Soberano’s airfare and rent for his first few months in Arizona, as well as a $2,500 fee for Ms. Avenida and a fee of several thousand dollars to Alliance Abroad Group, a Texas-based company that is an official State Department sponsor for J-1 visa holders. The J-1 lasts three years, with the option for two one-year extensions. For each year he works in the United States, Mr. Soberano will owe Alliance Abroad an additional $1,000 visa renewal fee.
“You have to make some sacrifices to leave your family way back home,” Mr. Soberano said. Every night, he prepares lessons for his seventh- and eighth-grade science students, and every morning, he wakes up at 4 a.m. to video chat with his wife and two teenage daughters, who are ending their day in Manila. Despite their separation, he said the experience has been rewarding, “teaching in a different culture, but also, financially.”
The school districts that recruit teachers like Mr. Soberano say that they have few other options, because they can’t find enough American educators willing to work for the pay that’s offered. They say that the foreign teachers are being given valuable opportunities, and that American students are enriched by learning from them. But critics argue the teachers are being taken advantage of in a practice that helps keep wages low and perpetuates yearslong austerity policies.
Though J-1 teachers account for only a tiny share of Arizona’s 60,000 public schoolteachers, international recruitment has spread quickly in recent years, as sponsor companies market themselves to districts facing shortages and word spreads among administrators. According to the State Department, 183 Arizona teachers were granted new J-1 visas last year, up from 17 in 2010.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
New York State teachers get the highest pay, especially in the inner cities. I was a teacher so I saw what they were making.
Cost of living.
I doubt you can chalk it all up to cost of living. NY teachers have very strong pensions — an NYC teacher retiring today after 30 years will have a retirement package that arguably puts them into the “upper middle” class, far beyond what most Americans deemed “middle class” have or will ever hope to have. That’s not because the cost of living is high in NYC or NY. And of course a retired teacher doesn’t have to live in NYC or NY if they don’t want.
Lots of retired NYC teachers get their pensions in Florida where the cost of living is less than NYC
I know teachers with multiple Master’s degrees and multiple certifications. They deserve a good salary and pensions.
The entire state has a high COL not just NYC. Teachers in upstate NY are certainly not retiring into the upper middle class. My sis has 2 masters, admin certif, taught for 20 yrs, has been in dept supv, asst princ for a decade. Because of admin positions she’ll retire more comfortably than a career teacher, i.e., won’t be forced to move to a cheaper state to maintain continued middle-class, is able to support partner w/health issues, pitch in when one of their 4 grown kids needs help. They’ve only ever bought one new car, plow their own snow etc. And BTW NYC teachers are hardly rolling in dough, many have to retire to a cheaper state like other middle-class city dwellers.
bethree5: I choose to move to NW Indiana because it is cheaper living here. I hate the red politics but I was able to get the condo that I wanted at a cheaper price than what is available in Illinois. I have heard that a lot of teachers from Illinois do move here.
How sad that teachers, as highly educated professionals, have to move to retire in an attempt to stay in the middle class.
You know, carolmalaysia, I agree in concept…
Yet it’s worth pointing out that our family is in similar straits despite my husband’s 44 yrs in corp engrg [masters degree]. We must retire very soon (we’re already nearly 69 y.o.!) & when we do, our income will be cut by half.
Our retirement income [combined] will be the same as my much younger sis’ [alone]– a career NYS teacher& admin– but she will retire at 58 after 37 yrs’ work… & her retirement health bennies [which were always superior to ours during her working yrs] will be better than ours in retirement… Not saying she worked any less, I see their breadwinner career paths as equivalent. Both, in prime of career, have had to work 60+hrs/wk, have been on call 24/7 for various types of emergency…
And our retirement income is better than those in engrg/constr industry who are my sis’ age: we benefit [for at least a part of our careers] from the old-fashioned vested pensions that disappeared in the ’90’s. Those corp workers that came after us (my sis’ age) had only the 401(k)s, & her teacher/ admin’s pension is superior.
I believe this sort of math is at the heart of the teacher-bashing [/public-worker bashing] we see today.
Tho today’s young starting teachers have to contribute much more both to healthcare & pension than my sis did– perhaps even placing them on an equivalent path to corp types [lower salaries but better bennies]– there is a huge backlog of elder folk like my family whose retirement income– despite following all the rules of caution/ savings etc– is less than equivalent to teachers’ retirement– to which we contribute: we pay more in RE taxes than we pay to our mortgage, & 75% of what we pay in RE taxes goes directly to district teachers’ salaries.
2nd only to HI in median teachers’ pay. But what’s your point? It’s also 2nd only to HI in COL.
Defined benefit pensions are a form of deferred compensation, to provide an incentive for highly skilled and educated teachers to remain in the system – before the era of so-called education reform, teaching experience was considered a good thing – who earn far less over their careers than people in the private sector with equivalent education.
Those generous (and they are) pension payouts were well-earned in the below-average pay teachers get for at least the first half of their careers.
I started teaching in NYC in 1997 with a Master’s Degree; my annual salary was $27,000. I’ve earned that pension.
“Defined benefit pensions are a form of deferred compensation, to provide an incentive for highly skilled and educated teachers to remain in the system”
This is true as a principle, and I have no doubt that you’ve earned your pension, although I would add that the retroactive pension enhancements in 2000 and again in 2007 have had disastrous effects on the funding levels of the NYC teacher pension funds and, as a consequence, the DOE’s overall finances. I pray that we’ve learned the lesson that if retirement benefits are to be retroactively enhanced, those enhancements must be paid for immediately, no matter how unpopular that might be. My main point in bringing up pensions, however, was just to point out that the compensation gap between teachers in NYC (and the surrounding regions) and those in most of the rest of the country isn’t simply a matter of wages, but is also (and probably mostly) a matter of retirement benefits, which are extremely rich in this area compared to most others.
I would also add that there are currently more than 100 separate bills pending in Albany that would retroactively enhance benefits for public employees. As in the past, many of these bills will probably pass with little to no press coverage, and all of them will be sold to the public (to the extent the public is even aware of them) as “cost-neutral,” meaning that no additional money will be placed aside to cover them.
The reporter is clearly playing games with his\her words…
“In Pendergast, where salaries of around $40,000 are a source of pain and protest for the district’s American educators, Mr. Soberano is thankful for the pay.”
Teacher salaries in Pendergast Elementary School District average +$53,000, higher than the state average of $48,000 per the AZ Auditor General…
Click to access Pendergast_ESD.pdf
OMG! This is truly SICK. We cannot even educate our own and have to call in cheap labor.
So how will these “brought-in” teachers be able to manage financially if U.S. citizens have a hard time paying their bills?
In the meanwhile, the elite dine on caviar and drink champagne and they CERTAINLY don’t drink the TAP WATER from FLINT, Michigan?
Guess the elite don’t care that we are becoming a third world country and fast.
$200/mo for a bed in a 4-person apartment, no medical insurance, riding bus to work, walking to a store. $25/mo for a smartphone, and need to buy a TV or separate internet access. Books, news, communication also via the phone.
One commenter on this NYT article said that he left to go to the international schools.He was asking teachers who do that to explain why they left. I replied to him:
………………………………
Carol Ring Chicago 9 minutes ago
I quit as an elementary music teacher in Illinois and then went international. I was BARELY surviving on the money I got while teaching in Illinois. ONE year out of 20 years of work I was able to save $50.
My first Illinois music job lasted 12 years. Then a referendum didn’t pass and I was to be assigned to a 4th grade classroom. Because of budget cuts there was no planning time. I couldn’t stand the thought of teaching all new subjects and not having any planning time so I quit and found other music positions.
I went through 4 more districts and never got tenure. I had a master’s degree and graduate hours so was considered high on the pay scale. Districts, in order to save money, were hiring music people and then firing them so they’d never have to pay any higher on the pay scale. I couldn’t stand the stress of looking for a new job every 1-2 years and found out about international schools.
I worked at the Santa Cruz Co-operatieve School in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for two years. Then I was accepted at the International School of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. In KL I received a good salary. It was high enough that I was sending home money each month and now use that to help with my retirement. I also was given EXCELLENT health insurance which cost me nothing. There was a savings plan required by workers in Malaysia. I used that money, which was sent to me after completing my teaching, as a down payment on my condo.
I relate to your comment although our situations were much different. I returned to full time teaching very late, so I was never as in demand as younger teachers, especially since I had my Masters as well as experience. In my last, very poor, district, they sponsored teachers from the Philippines. I worked with several in the special ed department. Can you guess who lost her job before reaching tenure? I was “not rehired” seven years ago. Hiring overseas was a well established practice in that district.
Spedutr: I’m curious. Which district hired teachers from the Philippines? Aren’t you from Illinois?
In Illinois I worked in Chicago Heights, Bensonville, Berwin, Frankfort and Markham.
I lost my tenured elementary band/classroom music job in Chicago Heights because they didn’t pass a referendum by 6 votes. [Didn’t want to teach in a 4th grade classroom with no planning time.]
In Frankfort, one music teacher told me I was the eighth music hire to loose his/her job.
In Bensonville, teachers signed a petition to keep me but that didn’t mean anything.
In Berwin, two of us hired at the same time lost our jobs. We possibly were the highest paid in the school. The fellow who lost his job said it might have been because the principal flirted with him and he rejected her. We both were outcasts and nobody would talk with either of us, except for one friend. She’d meet me in the basement behind some bookcases.
Couldn’t stand Markham because of the horrid principal. The music teacher before me sued the principal for her bad evaluation. The teacher won and got a year’s salary. One fifth grade kid, the principal’s pet, was told to come to see her if the teachers gave him any trouble. By the end of the year the kid was running wild in the hallways and swearing at the teachers.
And here you have a short summary of my life teaching elementary music in Illinois. [I managed to save the $50 when I worked in Bensonville.]
Think of far north suburbs on the lake with a large Latino population.
States should not be able to hire J-1 workers for the sole purpose paying less when there are certified and qualified candidates in the US. The teacher shortage is a man made creation fueled by a political climate that worked to undermine public education for decades and by states that refuse to invest in public education. The tech industry has been abusing the use of 504 visas in order to keep salaries low for years. A waiver should only be granted when an employer can show it has legitimately searched and failed to find a qualified certified American to fill the position.
Retired: “A waiver should only be granted when an employer can show it has legitimately searched and failed to find a qualified certified American to fill the position.”
I would imagine this very well could become a reality sometime in the future since colleges are now finding drops of around 20% in the number of students who sign up for teacher education classes. Why go into a field that is so difficult and will probably be made harder as less and less is put into our schools? I’m sure politicians know exactly what they are doing. They are catering to the base that wants lowered taxes, and the people who declare that ‘trickle down’ is the way to save our economy.
I’m glad that an article like this appeared in the NYT and a similar one in The New Yorker. An educated populace is a necessity in times like this.
They actually do demonstrate that they hung a help wanted sign ;behind the outhouse. Its not just teachers shortages that are myths . The entire mantra of skills shortages is a myth . Teachers shortage are due to poor wages . No shortage here on Long Island .
6 million unfilled jobs and wages are stagnant . Any serious economist would tell you that is not how it works .
So here is the data from BLS The first thing to note is that it is called
“Job openings, hires, and total separations “. The difference between separations and openings is only 800 thousand. So we have 6 million open jobs because 5.2 million of them had employees leave that month . Not because we have 6 million new jobs left unfilled for lack of skills. .
Further these Jobs are spread throughout every conceivable occupation throughout the country . The largest sectors being Health services, including bed pan changers, Hospitality and Retail.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.a.htm
Peter Greene said that just because you can’t buy a sports car for the price of a VW doesn’t mean there is a shortage of high end sports cars. I’m paraphrasing his take on the teacher shortage. In other words the shortage was created by design.
Thank you for “unpacking” this favorite corporate talking point, Joel. I also appreciate your Peter Greene explanation, RT. He does have a way with words.
My district has taught Spanish, French and German for decades. Recently positions teaching other languages that cannot be filled by teachers who grew up learning Spanish, French, and German have been created and filled by people on temporary visas. Coincidence? I think not.
retired teacher
I would bet Peter Green might have heard that from another Peter .
Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources.
Phrased it like this probably in 2011 or 12 .
Not being able to buy a Diamond at the price you want to pay for it . Is not the same as not being able to buy a Diamond.
Tech: I think you mean H1B visas?
But I so totally agree. J-1, H1B, a scab by any other name smells as foul.
The J-1 visa option should not be allowed in any State whose teaching conditions are so unfavorable (salary, benefits and work conditions) that American teachers do not want to work there or CANNOT AFFORD to work there thus resulting in massive attrition and unfilled positions. J-1 hirees used to receive a salary commensurate with what an American would earn (and this was based on a national standard with some regional factors considered). So by the same token… if American teachers are leaving their positions because their salaries have become “chicken feed” and well below any national and regional standard… the positions should not be able to be filled by foreigners period in those regions not meeting basic standards for Americans! Creating poor conditions to increase American teacher attrition SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BE A BUSINESS STRATEGY!
Many (not all) liberals/progressives have castigated our President for his tough stance on immigration, and the proposed border wall. A nation that cannot control its borders, ceases to be a nation.
Public school systems should be able to hire foreign teachers, only when they can prove that there are no qualified American candidates available.
I have seen this from the “flip side”. I once worked as a curriculum development specialist (textbook writer) at a vocational/technical school in Saudi Arabia. The school had to certify that there were no qualified Saudis to fill the role.
The US has the teachers. Arizona doesn’t want to pay a professional salary.
And if salaries were higher many students would be obtaining the education they need to obtain those jobs .
The legislature brought in a pay raise, which will increase the salaries of Arizona teachers through 2020. The governor signed the bill. It appears to me, that the state legislature of Arizona, got the message, and delivered. The teachers have returned to the classrooms. It seems to me, that all parties are satisfied with the outcome.
I am an engineer. I know this field. There are spot shortages in some (not all) STEM fields. When a company has made a good faith effort to locate a qualified American (or legal alien), and has not been able to find one, there is the H1B program. Companies may get a special visa, to hire a foreign engineer, to fill a slot for which there is no qualified American (or green-card holder).
I have no problem with states/municipalities, who cannot locate a qualified applicant for a teaching position, being given the same permission to hire a foreigner. With the proviso, that there are no qualified American (or green-card holding) applicant.
Why the double standard?
What you are missing, Charles, is that the teachers were striking for a restoration of funding; due to budget cuts and tax cuts, the state education budget is less than what it was in 2008. It is still, after the new budget deal, less than it was a decade ago.
I guess I am missing something.
1)Teachers were (justifiably) dissatisfied with their salary/benefits (and the overall state of education in Arizona).
2)Teachers went on strike.
3)The legislature passed legislation containing pay raises through 2020. The governor signed the legislation.
4)Teachers returned to work. (Granted, not all teachers were thrilled with every aspect of the legislation)
Apparently enough teachers were satisfied with what they got, to return to work.
What am I missing?
Teachers had two goals when they went on strike:
1) a pay raise of 20%.
2) restoration of deep budget cuts over the past decade.
They got a promise of pay raises (although new monies go to the district, which decides how to spend it)
They got no commitment about restoring deep budget cuts.
Charles, why don’t you read the articles I post? Both demands were fully explained. Not just a demand for a salary increase, but a demand for restoring budget cuts.
Charles
Where you been ?. Guess what that is the law . But the same mostly Republican right wing employers who support “your President ” (the lying ,low life ,treasonous ….. ….. SOB ). Are the same ones violating our employment and immigration laws. ” Let us build a wall then hire a contractor to imperfectly patrol it”. Or let in as much sub standard wage workers as desired with work permits.
Of course you could come back and say but what about our Tech Giants who abuse the H1B program ‘ aren’t they liberals . ., “Its the economy stupid. ” God , Gays and Guns are a right wing distraction to allow the economic rape of their working class base.
I see the wall as more of a political distraction than anything else. Since many of the people crossing the border are taking jobs that U.S. citizens are not jumping to fill, I wonder how effective tightening the border will be. Yeah, the wages are substandard, but we have to be ready to accept the higher prices/taxes associated with making those jobs attractive enough. (There isn’t a whole lot that is attractive about picking crops.) Either we as a society are willing to support a living wage for everyone or we will continue to see certain jobs filled by people fleeing countries where violence and poverty are even more of a problem.
As Joel said we also have laws that are supposed to protect American workers from foreign incursions into our job market, but we see how well that works when those doing the hiring have the power to “work around” those restrictions.
speduktr
The wall is definitely a distraction . Employment law could could easily replace a border guard . It is a mistake to say that immigrants are taking jobs Americans won’t do. That is only partially true.. . Immigrants have always been used to drive down wages . Our first Nation of origin law was the Oriental exclusion act of 1880. We banned Asians till 1943 . That was a response to Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad taking Irish Jobs . As a response to slow job growth in the early 20s we decided we had, had enough immigrants from Southern and Easter Europe. So we cut way back on immigration and practically eliminated it from Southern and Eastern Europe.
Meat packing was a coveted job at a Union wage with bennifits . Union Construction another area where labor is being exploited by unscrupulous employers to break Union constructions grip in NYC . . Yet at a demonstration against these developers talking to a union leader , whose trade is getting clobbered; his first reaction was to rail for a second against immigrants and then turn and say he would organize every one of them if he had the opportunity.
So back in 2013 Schumer proposed with the support of the AFL-CIO a bio-metric Social Security card to be used for employment similar to the enhanced license that you will soon need to get on a Plane. He coupled it with an amnesty and harsh penalties for employers who violate the E Verify laws. So all the usual suspects came out against it. The ACLU on the Left, but the overwhelming number of Republican freedom loving Wall Builders from the Tea Party to the Business wing . Of course these are the same people who insist on voter IDs and then make minorities jump through hoops to get them ,in their states.
For me it is long past time that we have a National ID and make it the Feds responsibility to make sure that it is given to all Americans and immigrants . To be used for everything from voting ,to employment , to universal healthcare , a license and library card. . Of course that will never happen because we want the undocumented worker working in the shadows and we want to disenfranchise minority voters. We will wave the flag and talk about liberty, the 4th amendment ,overbearing Government and how our great grand parents came here legally when there were almost no restrictions . . .
We then have to acknowledge that American policy from Latin America to the Middle East has driven much of the immigration crisis here and in Europe. Be it wars , support for corrupt autocratic governments, or trade policy that destroyed Mexican family farming . We break it we should be responsible for fixing it . Yet instead we will watch families fleeing deplorable violent conditions and then treat refugees like criminals at the border.
Joel: This comes from Zareed Zakaria’s post on Why Trump is Manufacturing an Immigration Crisis
…And then there is Trump’s own approval ratings, lower than any president’s in modern history at this point in his term except Jimmy Carter’s. Oh, and add to that the cloud of the Robert Mueller investigation. What is the way out for the Republicans?
Focus on the cultural anxieties of the American public. Nothing embodies these anxieties as much as immigration. It has become a simple catch-all for the swirling mass of fears, particularly among non-college educated whites, Trump’s core base. Trump has often noted how crucial the border wall is to his base, declaring that “the thing they want more than anything is the wall.” Indeed, a recent poll indicated that 81 percent of Republicans want the wall to be built.
In a midterm, in which it is crucial to bring out your most ardent supporters, nothing will work as well as immigration. (Though do not be surprised if Trump also picks a few fights with black athletes or victims of police violence in the coming months.)
A new study published by the National Academy of Sciences finds that Trump voters in the 2016 election were motivated less by economic anxiety and more by status anxiety — fears of waning power and status in a changing country.
erase one could.
You are right, Joe, I oversimplified the situation. I was thinking specifically of migrant workers when I got going on wages. That far from covers the topic. I witnessed the strife between black and Latino in my classroom. One of my black students saw Latinos as interlopers who were stealing the jobs of blacks in Chicago and got into it on a couple of occasions with one of my Latina students. The situation was especially personal for him; he was living with his sister to get out of the city for a better education, but had obviously had personal experience that fueled his anger. Fortunately, neither one of them was going to allow their animosity to go beyond verbal sparring.
carolmalaysia
That study has become the latest talking point of the chattering class . Obviously demagoguery has played well in this country “forever” . For a Nation that prides itself in mythology as a Nation of immigrants, we have since the Irish came in the 1840s been a Nation of fear and intolerance.
I have often posted the lyrics of Robert Zimmerman’s tribute to Medgar Evers . Better known as ” A Pawn in Their Game ” Bob Dylan explains in 1963 that
“the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train”
Politician is synonymous with the oligarchy that owns them. As Negro is with Immigrant.
But the National Academy of Sciences study misses the marker . The decline in the “White Working Class ” which is a far broader socioeconomic classification than blue collar workers ; is real , the starting point for the study is wrong . Go back 15 years go back 30 years to see the decline in the standard of living of this group .
Their wives entered the workforce full time as family incomes stagnated and Pensions and Health insurance either disappear or become tenuous at best . As Lofgren stated in 2011 “even their main asset their homes, lost value in the financial crisis”. . . The prospects for their better educated children even worse . You want to see decline ask how many Millennial’s have employer provide health insurance .
In a counter intuitive manner , it would seem that when the working class is crushed instead of rebelling and attacking the oligarchy they scapegoat the poor and minorities . The elites have figure this out . Which is why the first thing they do when their stooges seize power is crush unions. This includes that kinder gentler version of the right , . the Neo Not Liberals . It was Diane Feinstien not Orrin Hatch who killed labors best shot in 2009 . I would caution them that neither the French Aristocracy nor the Politburo saw it coming.
Not exactly. If an employer is willing to break the law, by hiring an illegal alien and paying them slave wages, then the employer should be prosecuted. If the illegal employment disappears, the illegal employees will disappear.
Most illegal aliens come to the USA for work. Americans hire these people, illegally. Prosecuting the employers will make the illegal aliens disappear.
No jobs, no workers. It is just that simple.
Charles,
You occasionally astonish me with comments like this one.
“No jobs, no workers.”
It works the other way.
No workers, no industries.
Without the migrant workers, agriculture will collapse.
Without the seasonal workers, the vineyards will collapse.
Without the illegals, the hotel industry will have to raise wages and prices or collapse.
Same for the fast food industry.
One of the news channels did a feature a few days ago about the soft shell crab industry on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, near you.
The crabs are captured by the locals, but the catch is rotting because they lost the Mexican women who are highly skilled at cleaning and cracking them to make cans of crabmeat.
Be careful what you wish for.
Correction: Neo”liberals” expanded support trade agreements and expanded skilled work visas. True liberals support protecting undocumented immigrants, especially refugees, from persecution. There is a difference between someone fleeing extreme poverty and violence, and someone choosing to come here temporarily on a visa.
Sorry, support expanded, not expanded supported.
Can we rephrase that neo thing , I have a tough time connecting it to Liberal, new or old. The definition I am well aware of back to Pinochet . It is the term it self that makes me ill .
They also expanded the definition of “high skilled” worker to include most of the tech jobs. Trump claimed he was going to reduce the scope of a “skilled” worker, but I don’t know if he has done anything.
Joel, we can call them Third Way.
In Utah, there are nearly two times the number of people with teacher certification than teachers in the state, but Utah has a “teacher shortage.” So many certified teachers have left the profession, some to raise families, but way too many because of the low pay and ludicrous class sizes.
And what, in the sam hill, does the president’s position on immigration and the border wall have to do with the subject at hand?
This is similar to the H1-B visas used by Gulen charter schools to hire teachers.
“In recent years, thousands of Turkish males have obtained H-1B visas under this network of charter schools, coming at the expense of local U.S. educators, who are supposedly unable to fill math and science (or even administrative and counseling) positions at the Gülen schools.” http://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com.
Critics say H-1B visas were designed to help companies temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers in biotechnology, chemistry, engineering and other specialized fields – not K-12 teachers.
It is an abusive practice designed to undermine American workers so that employers can pay pennies on the dollar for labor.
I have been warning my senator….McCaskill….that she is going to lose in November. In some states, democrat candidates have recognized the power of parents teachers and students with energy and enthusiasm—worth more than a lot of big money, the majority of which is slated for republicans in November. In places like Missouri, where a major religion is that democrats have to be careful not to be too liberal—find a way to be a centrist is the only way to win. Claire worships in that church….and she is going to get her teeth kicked in, because her opponent will not be a pervert this time, just a run of the mill, bland nothingburger. Not enough democrats will bother to vote….she is running a spend money and be careful not to stand for anything campaign. She is in the wrong party to be trying to win that way.
And her response to being told she’s going to lose is to go further to the right. She was, for pity’s sake, one of remarkably few Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo!
If she does lose, however, no loss. She’s a Republican anyway, even if she does pretend to a D after her name.
dienne77: Breitbart quote, “Only half a dozen Democrats voted to confirm Pompeo, primarily from red states that overwhelmingly went for Trump in 2018 and who are facing tough reelection fights.
Those Democrats included: Sens. Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Doug Jones (AL), Joe Manchin (WV), and Claire McCaskill (MO), and Bill Nelson (FL). Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeo.”
………………………………….
Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN) is running scared. There are three Repubs who are trying to take his seat.
Indiana is so red that somedays I can’t see the sun. Low taxes for all! Trickle down, if there are any wealthy in this state, doesn’t work.
joe prichard
I feel your pain . My Problem Solver Congressman must be looking for a two party endorsement.
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This is a predatory capitalistic porcine dream come true. They get to exploit desperate people from poverty stricken countries and to simultaneously slap American educators across the face as they stab them in the back. It’s a win win for the plutocrats, libertarian ghouls and free market cultists. These teachers from the Philippines are virtual indentured servants who will probably be thrown away in two or three years. Wages can be kept low, unions kept at bay and teacher rights a thing from ancient history, if they ever existed at all in the red states.
School districts don’t just save on salaries if they hire foreigners on j-1 visas
From Wikipedia
J-1 visa holders are exempt from paying Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes (for Social Security and Medicare) when they are nonresident aliens for tax purposes, which is usually the first five calendar years
Employers who hire J-1 visitors may also save up on payroll taxes. When J-1 visitors do not pay Social Security, Medicare or Federal Unemployment taxes, employers do not have to match these taxes.
What will they think of next?
Oops, I forgot.
They already thought of it: Pearsonalized learning to eliminate the teacher entirely.
They’re temps in a gig economy, destabilizing the lives of others, benefiting the leisure class.
Doctors, Unlike Teachers, Do Well in the Modern Economy Because They Don’t Face Foreign Competition
“If it were simply an economic question, there would be far more money to be saved by bringing in foreign doctors than foreign teachers.”
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/doctors-unlike-teachers-do-well-in-the-modern-economy-because-they-don-t-face-foreign-competition
There is nothing to like about this … NOTHING! Arizona is the Kleptocracy of Koch. Arizona should be renamed to Kochlandia and be allowed to leave the union.
When I began teaching, math teachers were so scarce that colleges infamously employed foreign graduate students to teach the basic classes. My students returned from local colleges warning against trying to learn from Dr. Xi, who could barely speak English.
California has been recruiting teachers from Spain and other countries off and on for a long time. When about 10 came to my district, they came preparing to teach subjects like art, and were then were told they were to teach American History. Discipline was very hard for them and all but one left at the end of the year. The one that stayed was in a bilingual program and had a mentor in her first year. The Assistant Supt. of Human Resources did not like dealing with the Spanish teachers and felt they were in our district so that the superintendent could get a free trip to Spain every year.
Simple solution: Tenured teachers in Title 1 schools work tax free. That’s a significant increase in pay without costing local district any money. If a teacher leaves their district, they lose their tax free status. The few billion needed to fund this could easily be skimmed from the bloated defense budget.
My school should be Title I, and the district refuses to designate us as such. It’s not as simple as you wouild think.
Why grow poverty domestically when you can just import it and not pay any “duties” on it?
Sorry, but importing teachers from Turkey and the Philippines en masse is a horrible approach, and it offends the American mindset, labor force, and process of teaching and learning. Yet, Arizona is a third world state importing third world teachers from oppressed, dictatorship societies where a middle class exists nominally.
I say fight the dickens out of this measure and fight for the wages you deserve, period, end of story. Grow up, teachers who vote against their interests. And pay attention to your own collectivism instead of that of the corrupt unions.
Importing teachers from abroad to teach mainstream course work in the public schools is NOT to be conflated with “appreciating multiculturalism and diversity”. Don’t fall for it!
This makes my blood boil. Don’t know why I didn’t see it coming for teaching, it’s such an obvious sequitur. It’s (It = cheap insourcing via skewed laws) is all around us. It’s just one of the steps down the “trickle-down” stairs to banana republic.
Many comments at the article say nothing new, been happening in nursing for decades. Though true, I wonder if in nursing [et al medical] there might be an actual market-based shortage due to the aging baby boom. Any shortage of teachers – or IT workers or construction workers or scientific researchers – has got to be artificially created by bad laws/ law enforcement = predatory labor practices
Nurses United might not agree with you . And in Piratical Nursing I seem to recall a nursing home case on long Island where Philippine Nurses were threatened with criminal prosecution for a work stoppage because of the deplorable conditions they lived and worked under.
practical
Thought it was some kid of pirate nursing
This thread has triggered my blood pressure to go up.
I has left a communist country since 1975, but I successfully immigrated to Canada in 1979. For 40+ years away from my family, this price is to enjoy my freedom in learning and in living without fear of being suppressed or being harmed by cruelty from ignorant and corrupted authority/leadership.
From this thread, America will soon become a third world = BASIC public education is taught by teachers from suppressed countries to cover the course “American History”, “Math and Science”, “Music and Arts”, “Languages and Literature”…
I remembered that I demanded a Canadian English Teacher to teacher my ESL class in summer course at University in 1980. I asked for a refund after my first class with a reason that my ESL teacher had a heavy Jamaican accent. Yes, she had Master degree, but I really do not care about her qualification. I was more concerned about my original accent that will be affected by her heavy accent = I cannot well articulate after 1 year!!!
In short, K-12 American children CANNOT be cheated by corrupted government or School Board of Education. It is time for all parents including teachers and students to stand up for your rights to pay heavy TAX for THE BEST AMERICAN EDUCATORS = = NOT foreigner teachers to teach American History, Math and Science, Languages, Arts, Musics…
If this situation cannot rectify quick enough, then 10 years from now, we will see that foreigners (rich children) from Malaysia, Singapore, China WILL SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH whereas 50+ millions American children would speak English with different accents = America will become a third world. Sigh. Back2basic
m4potw: …” foreigners (rich children) from Malaysia, Singapore, China WILL SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH”.
Most Malaysians do already speak perfect English. [I very rarely had to use my elementary level Bahasa Melayu…Malay language.] My friends are native english speakers. I had no difficulty getting around in Singapore since they also speak english. English is taught in both Malaysian and Singaporean schools. Most people speak several languages since the culture is diverse.
Back to retired teacher up there, yesterday, 6:04 PM RE: this situation being “created by design.” Yes, that’s the absolute truth. All in the master plan of ALEC & their bought legislators & the Kochs , Waltons, Broads, etc. It’s been in the works for 40 + years, while the rest of us were working too hard, raising children, caring for elderly parents & living our lives to realize it.
Because…who’d thunk people would be so avaricious?.
I went to public schools in Boise. I knew the state was red but it is shocking to learn that it is either lowest or next to lowest funding in the nation. [My brother in Boise says I don’t know economics and that trickle down is working. Guess this is why things won’t get better.] How very sad that teachers are struggling to have a middle class life style. It’s hard to understand why this is happening. Teachers are our future.
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Arizona Teachers End Walkout as Governor Signs Bill Approving Raises…NYT
State legislators refused protesters’ requests to raise income taxes on the wealthy, and instead turned to revenue sources that are likely to hit typical voters.
..Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association, said that despite Mr. Ducey’s claim of a 20 percent teacher raise, the union’s calculations showed the new budget guaranteed funding for less than a 10 percent raise. The bill restores only about a quarter of $1.1 billion in annual education cuts since the last recession, Mr. Thomas said, and does not guarantee raises for school support staff.
Like many of the other states rocked by teacher walkouts, Arizona has pursued decades of tax and spending cuts that educators say have devastated schools and made it difficult for teachers to achieve a middle-class lifestyle. In 2015, the last year for which census data was available, the state’s per-pupil funding was the third-lowest in the nation, behind only Utah and Idaho…
It’s time for teachers to stop playing nice.
On Thu, May 3, 2018, 12:02 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” Dana Goldstein has an article in this morning’s > New York Times about how some states and districts are filling teacher > vacancies caused by low pay. They are hiring teachers from other nations on > temporary work visas to whom an American salary l” >