In the "perfect storm" of funding inequities, fewer people choosing to become teachers, and the political attacks schools, rural districts are struggling to hire teachers for local schools. Positions go unfilled for years, or the applicant pools are so small the districts settle for teachers who would not be hired elsewhere. Many of these schools and in poor and working-class communities.
To fill positions, some districts are hiring large numbers of international teachers to fill open positions. The majority of teachers in some schools are now international teachers.
Yet now, the administration as announced huge fees for employers hiring under the HB-1 visas under which these teachers legally work.
Rural schools of course cannot pay these fees, the the new penalties for hiring international teachers does nothing to solve the long-standing challenges of recruiting teachers to rural communities, and poor and working-class rural students once again collateral damage in a political landscape indifferent to their well-being.
