Alaska’s rural school districts recruit heavily from abroad to fill teaching positions in their classrooms. But in the fall, President Donald Trump virtually shut that labor market down with a huge increase in the fee employers must pay for the visa those international workers need.
In the Kodiak Island Borough School District, nearly one in five current teachers have a visa. Now, it’s recruitment season for next school year, and the district’s top administrator says international teachers are not being recruited.
Kodiak Island Borough School District Superintendent Cyndy Mika said 26 of her teachers hold H-1B visas, which let highly skilled foreigners work in the United States for up to six years and can lead to permanent residence. There are more international teachers in the district as well, some who don’t have H-1B visas, and Mika estimates 75% of all village teachers in the rural schools around Kodiak Island are international hires.
“Not having the ability to hire internationally for Kodiak could mean the difference in having a teacher in front of students and not having a teacher in front of students next year," she said.
Current teachers already working in the district aren’t affected by President Trump’s new $100,000 visa fee, which is 20 times higher than the old fee. But it’s too much for the district and others across the state to cover.
“We actually are not currently recruiting from the Philippines for the first time since I moved here, four years ago," Mika said. "Because we cannot afford the $100,000 fee that is now imposed at the embassy in order to obtain our visas.”
Trump claimed in his executive order that the high fee will address employers’ “abuse” of the system to undercut American workers.
But part of the reason the school district started hiring teachers from the Philippines several years ago was because American candidates stopped applying. Mika said school districts used to find hundreds of potential teachers at in-person state job fairs.
"The last job fair in the state was two years ago; we had the same 52 or 53 districts and two teachers walked in the door of that job fair," she said. "Two applicants.”
H-1 B visa teachers fill crucial roles across the Kodiak Island Borough School District such as the high school music/orchestra teacher, special education teachers and teaching staff in rural communities like Old Harbor, for example. Assistant superintendent Kim Saunders said this year, for the first time, the district retained all of its rural school teachers, thanks in part to the international recruits.
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill last week on March 12 to exempt public schools across the country from paying the $100,000 fee.
Saunders appreciates Murkowski’s support. But even if the bill does pass quickly, she said it wouldn’t help recruiting that’s happening now.
“This would be a longer-term solution that Murkowski is proposing, which we’re very grateful for, but you’re really talking about an FY’28 solution, not a [FY]’27 solution," Saunders said.
She said that KIBSD is looking at alternatives to international hires. In the meantime, the district has started sending out contracts to its non-tenured teachers and is trying to determine its staffing needs for next school year.
Statewide, 573 educators are international teachers on various visas, according to Lisa Parady, the executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators. That’s 8.5% of Alaska’s teaching workforce. She said in some rural districts, more than half of the teachers are serving on visas.
Parady told state lawmakers earlier this month, on March 2 at a House Education committee hearing, that districts have been forced into an impossible choice.
“Pay millions in visa fees and cut student programs or go without teachers and leave classrooms uncovered. Neither option is acceptable for our students and children in Alaska," Parady said.
Earlier this month the state house education committee moved forward a resolution, HJR 39, urging the federal government to waive the $100,000 H-1B visa fees for Alaska teachers.
There are also 11 international teachers in the Kodiak Island Borough School District who need to renew their visas this year. It’s unclear how the ongoing government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security will affect that process. The department is responsible for processing and issuing visas but it’s currently without funding or a department head, as Secretary Kristi Noem was removed by President Trump earlier this month. Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
