New H-1B visa costs could cause long term affects to ripple across Nome Public Schools

President Donald J. Trump issued on Sept. 19 a proclamation that requires a $100,000 payment with new H1-B visa applications, effective Sept. 21. 
This now puts Alaska school districts, including Nome’s, in a precarious situation as they have relied on this type of visa to bring in international teachers to fill teacher positions for the lack of American educators applying.
Nome Public Schools Superintendent Jamie Burgess said in an interview with the Nugget that the new $100,000 price tag effectively prevents Nome schools from hiring international teachers, a strategy they’ve relied on heavily in recent years.
“Obviously, $100,000 for a visa application to bring a teacher is not feasible for any district Alaska or elsewhere in the country,” Burgess said.
“We do advertise, and if we can find a qualified stateside individual, that’s obviously where we would prefer to go,” said Burgess.
Burgess said they had to turn to hiring international teachers because they simply are not getting applicants from inside the country. “They don’t apply. We’re not getting applicants. It’s a nationwide teaching shortage that has been acknowledged for years,” she said.
Burgess said that the international teachers often have years of experience and some have graduate level degrees.
“These are individuals, sometimes with decades, you know, with 10, 15, 20 years of experience as teachers in the Philippine system,” she said.
Burgess said that Nome Public Schools does not have any international teachers on a J-1 visa. The reason for choosing to hire applicants with H-1B visas instead of J-1 visas was the potential for the district to retain those applicants and potentially even help sponsor them to pursue a path to permanent residency. While the process to obtain work authorization — commonly known as a green card —  is underway, teachers can remain in the country and continue working.
Burgess said that the hope is that by the district sponsoring green cards, they will be able to retain teachers who want to grow roots here.
“That’s the idea – that it’s investment, but that hopefully, out of that, we’ll get some long-term folks,” she said. “We hope by then they will kind of feel that Nome is, to a certain extent, hopefully Nome will become their home.”
The visa costs could become an issue as soon as Nome Public Schools has any teacher position vacancies.