By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska House of Representatives approved a resolution urging the Trump administration to waive a steep visa fee for international teachers. The vote comes amid a growing teacher shortage throughout the state.
Lawmakers are calling for the Trump administration to waive the fee for teachers hired through the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to recruit highly-skilled workers from overseas. The federal government raised the fee from $5,000 to $100,000 for each new applicant to the H-1B visa program in September.
The House passed the resolution by a 38-0 vote on Friday, with Reps. Bill Elam, R-Kenai, and David Nelson, R-Anchorage, absent.
Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, sponsored the resolution. The former teacher said the cost is impossible for Alaska school districts.
“We know it’s a deep concern,” Galvin said on the House floor Friday. “In Alaska, in particular, in our rural areas, we are desperate for more teachers, qualified teachers in the classroom before our students. We have a true need here that can be met, and this is one tool that I hope all of us will raise our voice together and send to our federal delegation so they can use it.”
Rep. Ted Eischeid, D-Anchorage, a former science teacher, noted international teachers are also employed in urban districts like Anchorage.
”At last count, we had 66 teachers that work for the Anchorage School District providing critical education,” Edischied said, referring to the number of international teachers. “So if the most important educational reform is to have a highly qualified teacher in front of kids every day, this resolution moves us in that direction. So I support this.”
Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, said 60% of teachers in the Kuspuk School District in her district are international hires. “The Kuspuk district cannot recruit teachers fast enough off the road system. You can’t train somebody to be a teacher overnight,” she said. “Ten teachers at a $100,000 rate visa, that’s a million dollars. Do we have a million dollars in our budget to spare for these teachers? I don’t think so.”
Jennifer Schmitz is director of the Alaska Center for Recruitment and Retention, a division of the Alaska Council for School Administrators, which supports districts in recruiting and hiring teachers and staff. After the vote, Schmitz said she was glad to hear legislators’ support because districts are hiring now.
“I’m thrilled that it passed, especially that it was unanimous,” Schmitz said. “Legislators all seem to understand that this is an issue and that they’re supportive of helping our international teachers get here more easily.”
There are nearly 600 teachers in Alaska hired through the H-1B visa program, which lasts for five years. Despite that, Schmitz said the center’s job board has over 700 job openings across the state, including for teachers, administration, para-professionals and staff.
“Special education is always at the top and then often harder to fill,” Schmitz said. “Positions can be secondary specialties like math, science, and chemistry, those higher level classes, those are often harder to fill and harder to find qualified candidates. But we have openings in every possible position.”
Schmitz said the center recently held several job fairs, including connecting University of Alaska students with education jobs as well as recruiting from around the United States and internationally.
“We are hopeful that people can find teachers from that. But we’re just really at a standstill,” she said for international hiring because of the visa fee. “And our attorney is looking at ways around that and other kinds of visas, but we just don’t know if they’re going to work… And we need to get their paperwork going now if we want them here by fall.”
The resolution now goes to the Senate where it is expected to garner support. The initiative backs federal action in the U.S. Congress, where Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are cosponsoring a bill in the Senate to waive the $100,000 visa fee for all public school employees. A similar bill in the U.S. House is urging the Trump administration to waive the visa fee for health care workers.
