When Alaska school administrators toured Pajo Elementary School, each class greeted them by welcoming them to the Philippines in both English and in Filipino. The administrators were there to see what the teachers they hire from the Philippines experience before moving to Alaska.
But the students are the other side of that story — These are kids that get left behind when Filipino teachers are hired abroad.
When recruiters opened up appointments for screening, all 720 spots were filled in just 16 minutes. The only advertising was a few posts on social media. But one consequence of hiring abroad is fewer quality teachers in the Philippines — a phenomenon known as brain drain.
Conversely, Alaska gets brain gain. Hiring teachers has largely been a success for the state’s kids. Recruiters on the 2025 trip picked some of the most highly educated teachers from the island nation. Kodiak Island Borough School District, for example, has more doctorate degrees from its 30 or so Filipino teachers than it does from its over 300 American hires.
“We were impressed with the quality of teachers that we met over there. And we were able to choose – from there – the top of the top,” said Cyndy Mika, the district’s superintendent. She said there have been more remarkable candidates than they can hire during recruiting trips.
It’s hard to say what the impact is on the Philippines, though.
Mika said that so far, a surplus of workers in the Philippines is helping address her district’s shortage.
“A lot of the teachers that we interviewed in the Philippines, when they first got their start, it was as a volunteer teacher,” she said. “They weren’t being paid because there weren’t jobs. They’re producing too many teachers.”
But Mika is concerned that taking so many highly qualified teachers could create a sort of skill ceiling there, if the country’s best teachers keep leaving for Alaska and other destinations.
That doesn’t change that her priority is the kids in the community where she works.
“My number one concern as a superintendent in Kodiak is getting the best quality teachers we can in front of our students,” she said. “If we didn’t have these Filipino teachers, who would we have?”
She said that without international hires, vacant teacher positions would lead to smaller teacher-to-student ratios and more burnout for her staff.
Remittance and returning teachers
It’s not a one-way street, though.
Many Filipinos working abroad send a lot of money home – 8% of the country’s economy, according to some reports. Their experience, professional development and cultural knowhow gained in the U.S. is valuable, too, and sometimes comes back.
Edna Auxtero is the administrator for Tagaytay Christian Academy, a private school about a two-hour drive from Manila. She said hiring Filipino teachers is a huge compliment to the country’s educational system.
“I’m so proud that they’re even interested to get Filipinos,” Auxtero said. “That’s always my dream – that the priority for employment in other countries are Filipinos.”
TCA’s principal, and many of its teachers, are alumni. Auxtero hopes some of them will go to Alaska someday and return with new skills.
“My hope is that they will come back to build the nation and impart all their knowledge, experiences to the next generation so that Philippines will rise up also,” she said.
“They can expect that for teachers under J1 visas,” said Serjoe Gutierrez, a Kodiak music teacher and one of the district’s first direct hires from the Philippines.
J1 visas require international hires to go back to their home countries after a few years. But Gutierrez, and many others, are on potential paths to permanent residency through H1B visas.
But he still thinks about kids he taught at a private school in Iloilo City.
“I do worry, sometimes,” Gutierrez said. He thought about it even before coming to Alaska. “I was thinking about it before resigning, but I told myself it’s for me. The kids, they would gain more experience – they’re still young. But I’m not getting any younger, so I need to do something for myself, too.”
Kodiak is his home now.
“I do love my country. I do love the Philippines, but I think being a teacher in Kodiak – being here in Alaska – opened a lot of opportunities for me,” he said.
He said he’s not sure he would have had the same chances to travel and play piano and violin publicly in the Philippines. He hopes to be one of the first to get a green card through the school and stay in the U.S. indefinitely.
