Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:15:06 -0700 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: "the rest of the story" on H-1B teachers in Las Vegas To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Some of you are aware of the recent commotion in Las Vegas regarding the hiring of H-1B teachers. Joe Guzzardi, a teacher and writer in Lodi (Sacramento area), wrote an excellent column on this recently (enclosed below; more to come, he tells me). Rob Sanchez has also commented in his e-newsletter. One of the points made is that there is a sizable pool of laid-off techies who could be great science and math teachers, and that efforts should be focused on developing that resource rather than using H-1Bs as a first resort. And a sharply-worded editorial ran in the local Las Vegas press (enclosed below), expressing outrage that the district is hiring H-1B teachers even though it rejected an award-winning teacher on a technicality. These points are important, but to me they distract attention from the real issue (once again): The fundamental attraction of the H-1B to employers is cheap labor. Here is what the Guzzardi column says: * If you wonder why the attraction to H-1Bs is so strong, read the 2004 * National Education Association report "Trends in Foreign Teacher * Recruitment." From the NEA report: "Some foreign teachers receive lower * pay than comparable teachers in their schools." * And: "Some school districts pay their nonimmigrant employees as new * teachers, regardless of their experience and qualifications." (The term "nonimmigrant" here refers to the fact that H-1B is legally termed a "nonimmigrant" visa, meaning that the foreign worker is allowed to work in the U.S. only temporarily, a maximum of six years.) In other words, the LV district is using H-1Bs just like the tech industry does, to attain both Type I salary savings (paying an H-1B less than an American with the same qualifications) and Type II salary savings (hiring a younger, thus cheaper, H-1B instead of an older, thus more expensive, American). And note carefully--file this away in your mind for future use if you are at all interested in the H-1B program--the definition of "prevailing wage" in the H-1B regulations is tied to the JOB, not to the WORKER. This shows one of the many gaping loopholes concerning the prevailing wage provisions in H-1B law and regulations. Sounds like the district has retained a crack immigration lawyer. Add to that an article from the Las Vegas press which ran last March (also enclosed below), with this key point: John Farley, a physics professor and director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at UNLV, said teachers with a bachelor's degree in Clark County typically start out at a salary of about $27,000. Well, duh! No wonder there is a "shortage" of teachers! And by the way, that award-winning teacher who was rejected by the Las Vegas district got hired in Bakersfield instead, with a salary of $60K, in spite of the fact that Bakersfield has a lower cost of living than LV. The LV district is committing rank fraud. And remember, they're doing it in full compliance with the law. The LAW is the problem, and Congress refuses to fix it. Norm http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Aug-28-Sun-2005/opinion/3083515.html Aug. 28, 2005 Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal EDITORIAL: 'Teacher shortage' a bureaucratic fraud Despite flying in teachers from the Philippines, the Clark County School District says it's still short 287 teachers to start the school year, and will fill those gaps with long-term substitutes. But anyone who wonders what the Clark County School District's "teacher shortage" is really all about need only read reporter Antonio Planas' Thursday account of California classroom veteran Theresa Porter's attempt to find work in our local Las Vegas schools. Ms. Porter holds a master's degree in English literature and has 14 years of experience teaching in Japan and California. She is licensed by the state of California to teach students whose primary language is not English -- an area where the Clark County district says it has "high needs." Not only that, Theresa Porter was named "teacher of the year" in the 2004-2005 school year, beating out 140 other faculty members at the high school where she taught in Stockton, Calif. But at her interview with the Clark County School District, Ms. Porter was turned down because, all those years ago when she was starting out as a teacher, she did her student teaching at the wrong place. Ms. Porter fulfilled her California student-teaching requirement at San Joaquin Delta College and Fresno Pacific University. But Nevada does not recognize those programs. This is like having Bill Gates or Steve Jobs show up offering to teach a course in entrepreneurship at the local business college, and telling them, "Sorry, you never did complete all your required semesters of gym class in high school, did you?" This is like refusing to give Audie Murphy his medals or allowing him to train other young recruits how to conduct themselves in combat -- because you find out he lied about his age to get into the Army. Nevada state law requires all incoming teachers to fulfill eight credits of student teaching before they can set foot in a classroom here, and that requirement is not unreasonable, responds Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction. Before the district could hire Ms. Porter, she would have to obtain a provisional license, giving her three years to go back and do her required student teaching, Mr. Rheault explained. But as it turns out, there's no need. After briefly considering a position as a long-term substitute at Rancho High School -- making $110 per day without benefits -- Ms. Porter said Tuesday she has accepted a job in Bakersfield, Calif., teaching high school English to students whose primary language is not English ... for $60,300 a year, plus benefits. "It's a far different welcome on this side of the hill," Ms. Porter says, further protesting, "I'm not just any teacher -- I'm excellent. The state is blocking a lot of qualified people from teaching." Because no one within the Clark County School District seems actually empowered to determine whether someone would make a good teacher (hint: principals are traditionally pretty good at this), we see an increasingly dysfunctional bureaucracy depending on an arcane system of "credentialism" which would rather import Filipina newcomers to temporarily swell the ranks (one wonders how they'll do in explaining the Bill of Rights), than hire a California "teacher of the year." This bureaucracy would refuse to hire Albert Einstein to teach high school physics. This bureaucracy values the kinds of dull minds who are content to dutifully put in scores of make-work hours pretending that education colleges actually teach anything of value, over those who have actually excelled in real classrooms, or in the subject areas they will be expected to teach. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. Monday, March 28, 2005 Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-28-Mon-2005/news/26153393.html Clark District recruits teachers in Philippines By ANTONIO PLANAS REVIEW-JOURNAL A lack of qualified special education and math teachers in the United States has caused the Clark County School District to travel more than 7,000 miles away for recruits. More than 25 residents of the Philippines have committed to teach in the district and are expected to begin working in August. They will work under temporary visas that expire after three years. Recruiters spent a week interviewing about 150 candidates early last month. District officials say 30 more teachers from the island nation could be signed as well. Clark County is the first district in the state to recruit overseas, a practice officials said is necessary to fill the high number of vacancies in the district. JoAnn Schlekewy, director of licensed personnel in charge of recruiting, said there are about 280 special education openings in the district, the majority of which are specialized positions such as speech pathologist and professional therapist. "Right now, we're recruiting in 43 states. I don't think we'll be able to fill the voids of our regular teachers, let alone our specialty teachers," Schlekewy said. "That's why we've considered other avenues." Schlekewy said the need for math teachers is not as urgent, with five openings in the district. But as 11 new schools open this fall, the need is high in both areas. It cost the district about $7,000 to send three recruiters to the Philippines. Substitutes have been filling in at schools without permanent math and special education teachers. District and national officials said the teacher education programs in the Philippines parallel those in the United States, and prospective teachers there can meet No Child Left Behind guidelines calling for teachers to have either bachelor's or master's degrees in their particular disciplines. Schlekewy said the Filipino teaching candidates were all bilingual and had at least three years of experience. Some held multiple degrees, she said. Although the candidates possessed impressive credentials, some had to cope with challenging circumstances in their native land, including classroom sizes of up to 60 students, tattered textbooks and chairs fashioned out of rice bags. "Living in the United States is very much a dream for many people from the Philippines," said Derek Ramage, an official with the Los Angeles Unified School District. "When you do recruit from the Philippines, you can choose from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of teachers." Ramage said his district has recruited about 800 foreign-born teachers since the mid-1980s in countries such as Canada, Spain and Mexico, as well as the Philippines. District and national officials said school districts from states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia have all recruited in other countries. But Filipinos who have committed to teach in the county still have many obstacles to surmount before they are placed in district classrooms. Schlekewy said that all teachers must submit fingerprints and have their transcripts thoroughly analyzed. Other requirements include attending workshops with a focus on classroom management and Nevada's educational curriculum. They must also take a multitude of tests covering general teaching, specialized fields and Nevada's constitution. Bill Hanlon, director of the state-funded regional professional development program, said the district has had a shortage of math and special education teachers for the past decade. He said the problem is national and not exclusive to Clark County. "It's bad news in the sense that we have to go out and recruit," Hanlon said. "But we don't have the teachers here." Hanlon's program helps teachers in the district meet state academic standards. He said that between 35 percent and 50 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. One constant complaint among teachers has been low salary. In the past, teachers in the district were able to find cheap housing. But with property values soaring, Hanlon said, the district becomes less attractive to teachers. John Farley, a physics professor and director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at UNLV, said teachers with a bachelor's degree in Clark County typically start out at a salary of about $27,000. He said the district has discussed adjusting the starting pay for high-demand teachers -- such as those in the special education field -- to a level comparable with teachers who have master's degrees. Starting salaries would then be near $38,000, Farley said. He acknowledged that even with higher starting salaries, UNLV will still not be able to churn out enough teachers for the district, which requires about 2,000 new teachers a year to keep up with growth. Schlekewy said the success of the recruiting trip to the Philippines will determine whether the district considers tapping the resources of other countries. She added that Mexico and Spain are being considered as potential destinations to find teachers who are bilingual. "We're not just limited to the Philippines," she said. "We're still doing some exploring in other countries." http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/050826_vfl.htm http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2005/08/27/opinion/1_guzzardi_050827.txt Why do we bring in foreigners to teach our kids? A recent item in the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal should raise eyebrows among my teaching colleagues and parents with school-age children. In his warm and fuzzy story titled "Teachers Arrive From Philippines," Antonio Planas reported that 51 Filipino teachers recruited in February to work for the Clark County School District have completed their 7,000-mile journey. They are headed directly to the classroom. Clark County is, according to the story, short about 400 teachers districtwide. But tough, unasked questions remain. Will the new instructors be able to make the transition from teaching in rural communities halfway around the world -- one described her village as "rice and coconut farmers" -- to teaching in the neon lights of urban Las Vegas? That would be no small feat. Look, for example, at the personal history of Elvira Ocamia as retold by Planas. Ocamia, who has never been outside the Philippines, is 56-years-old, married for 36 years and is the mother of eight children. She will be living either in an apartment or with other Las Vegas Filipinos, but without her husband or children. Can Ocamia can get off a plane and be emotionally prepared to deal with disruptive students in a demanding classroom? Another teacher, Elmer Potes, admitted that he speaks broken English with a heavy accent. Will his high-school math students, already sufficiently challenged, be able to understand him? Ken Record, a longtime Clark County resident who follows education issues, said "The way math is taught today, verbal skills are very important." Most of the recently arrived teachers admit that all they know about Las Vegas is what they have seen on television and on the Internet. The Filipino teachers are legally in the U.S. on non-immigrant H-1B visas. And that fact begs a bigger question: Did Clark County exhaust every opportunity to hire an American before traveling to the other side of the globe? Rob Sanchez, who tracks non-immigrant visa issues and is the Webmaster for the invaluable http://www.zazona.com, says school districts fail to look at unemployed local professionals. Many laid off software engineers, for example, have gone back to school to get education degrees. Wrote Sanchez in his Aug. 3 newsletter: "School districts all over the United States are actively recruiting foreign teachers for our schools. In this case, Filipino math and science teachers on H-1B visas have just arrived in Nevada." I have talked to many engineers and programmers who have been unable to get teaching jobs in math and science, despite the fact that they went back to school to get education degrees. Despite the growing number of desperate unemployed high-tech workers, states like Nevada still claim there is a shortage of these types of teachers. This is just another cruel insult to the growing number of highly educated professionals that can't find meaningful work. And when Sanchez says that recruitment of foreign teachers is going on nationwide, he isn't kidding. • In 2003, Arizona educators traveled to New Delhi for teachers even though the local Scottsdale Unified School District cut 175 jobs during the same period. • In June 2004, the New York Department of Education, crying "shortage," added 200 additional teachers from Jamaica to its staff. The state offered two additional bonuses: Free legal advice so that they could convert their visas into permanent residency status and free temporary housing. • In September 2001, Cleveland hired 50 math and special education teachers from India. This year 500 pink slips are being sent out in what the Cleveland Plain-Dealer describes as "The first wave in what will be deep staff cuts in the school district." At the beginning of my column, I warned that teachers should be leery of the trend to hire H-1Bs. Conservative estimates put the number of teachers with non-immigrant visas at about 15,000 -- and growing. If you wonder why the attraction to H-1Bs is so strong, read the 2004 National Education Association report "Trends in Foreign Teacher Recruitment." From the NEA report: "Some foreign teachers receive lower pay than comparable teachers in their schools." And: "Some school districts pay their nonimmigrant employees as new teachers, regardless of their experience and qualifications." And to the parents, I urge you not to settle for anything less than the best for your child. In today's job environment, your kid needs the best possible academic foundation. With nearly 14 million unemployed or under-employed Americans, the chances are great that someone in your community with professional experience and impressive academic credentials would jump at the chance to teach. School administrators should forget about traveling around the world to sign up teachers simply because they will work for less. Instead, to ensure a quality education for our children, they must find good teachers locally and pay them well. Joe Guzzardi, an instructor at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly column since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at joaquin@lodinet.com.