[Bret L]

On Independence Day, The Struggle To Regain Our Classrooms Continues

By Joe Guzzardi

"OMG!

To think I was foolish enough to project into my summer cash flow my
low-three-figure California income tax rebate.

With the state again locked in a budget battle that appears to have no
permanent resolution, I now face a dilemma of an altogether different
type. Should I frame my IOU from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and
hang it on the wall to remind me of the wisdom of my decision to bolt?

During these early July days, I’m fixated on California.

First, I know several state employees. They are sick to death of being
pawns in the budget battle. Some have already been forced to accept
two non-paid work days a month—delicately called “furloughs”—and must
now cope with a third. [Furlough Fridays Back---Now Three Days a Month
by Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee, July 1, 2009]

My state worker buddies wonder why they’re the target when a much more
voracious consumer of state dollars—illegal immigrants—are staunchly
defended by the governor.

My friends know how to calculate illegal immigration’s cost. Three
unpaid work days equal about a 14 percent reduction in their monthly
salary.

Imagine if that same 14 percent were applied to the illegal
immigration tab. My conservative estimate is that $1.5 billion would
be saved.

Second, my former California teaching colleagues are worried.
Education is always top on the legislators’ list of expenses to be
pared.

But again, if the state didn’t have a school enrollment made up of 25
percent non-English speakers, it wouldn’t need to hire as many
bilingual teachers and to offer as many special services to
immigrants.

Instead, it’s teacher’s heads that are on the chopping block. Since
March, pink slips—some issued then withdrawn—have been widely sent
out.

In California’s largest district, Los Angeles Unified, nearly 6,000
teachers were in jeopardy as well as another 3,500 support personnel.
Statewide, the at-risk teaching jobs totaled 20,000. [As LAUSD Lay
Offs Loom, Debate Over Teacher Seniority Resurfaces, by Jason Song and
Seema Metha, Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2009] Many younger teachers
wonder if their next career move will take them out of state.

Imagine their surprise when I told them that, despite significant
teacher layoffs up and down the I-5 corridor, Washington State has
expanded an already aggressive plan to hire more foreign-born
instructors and bring them to the U.S. on H-1B visas.

Over the past five years, at least 40 Washington school districts
applied for H-1B visas to employ teachers and administrative staff.

Among those added were a high-school English teacher from Jamaica, a
special-education teacher from India, and a parent-outreach
coordinator from Chile.

A high school English teacher from Jamaica? A special-ed teacher from
India? And a parent-outreach coordinator—whatever that is—from Chile?

A school district needs to go to Chile to find a parent-outreach
coordinator?

With so many talented, experienced American teachers available hiring
overseas is indefensible.

And, in fact, the case of Dominican Republic-born math teacher
Francisco Size outlines all the pitfalls inherent in importing a
foreign-born instructor.

The Highline School District recruited Size, who had “some teaching
experience,” at a New York job fair and helped him through the initial
steps of getting to Washington.

After spending $3,500 on attorney and visa fees, Size landed at
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport two weeks before he was to start
teaching several classes of remedial math. Immediately, and without
any urban teaching experience to fall back on, Size had trouble
setting classroom rules and disciplining students. Size noted that
teaching in the Dominican Republic, where youngsters are happy to have
an opportunity, is substantially different than it is in urban America
where unruly students call the shots.

Said Size: “I think I really maybe don’t know the culture of the
students, how they think, how high school [is] like here, what they
expect from the teachers.”

Sadly—but predictably—Size said he became depressed and brought those
feelings into the classroom where he was unable to carry out his
responsibilities. As a result, Highline will not renew his contract
for next school year. [Washington Schools Hire Some Foreign Teachers
by Using H-1B Visas, by Christine Willmsen and Lauren Turnbull,
Seattle Times, June 28, 2009]

And, in the most incredible of ironies, in 2009-2010 the HIghline
School District may lay off as many as 228 full time teacher
positions. [Highline School District Budget Cuts May Mean Up to 228
Teacher Layoffs, by Scott Schaefer, White Center Blog, April 21, 2009]

Last month Size interviewed for a math teaching position at a Houston
school that hires H-1B workers. Why any school would hire Size—or even
interview him—given his Seattle failure is a mystery.

The total human cost of the Size experiment is this: The several
classes of remedial math that were entrusted to Size by inept school
administrators have now taken a one-year step backward. Most remedial
students won’t recover from so much lost time.

The entire hiring process and whatever expenses are involved in it
must be repeated.

An overlooked but qualified American teacher was reduced to
substituting and probably spent his spare time looking for a career
outside of education.

Size will most likely never return to the Dominican Republic, but will
instead take up permanent residency, legally or illegally, in Houston,
Seattle or wherever he finally lands.

The H-1B beat goes on—even though laid-off engineers, recently-retired
teachers, burnt-out corporate middle managers are only a few of those
Americans who would be happy to take those teaching jobs.

I asked a veteran California educator who worked with H-1B visa
teachers to explain his experience to me. He said:

“Initially, we had to work with large student immigrant populations—
first Mexicans, then Southeast Asians, then many more Mexicans with
other ethnicities soon arriving in the classroom in large numbers.

“Now, it seems we have to train foreign-born teachers too. We have to
mentor them to make sure they understand our teaching system and know
what they can and cannot do especially in the area of discipline. They
need to understand, for example, the importance of politically-correct
lesson plans, an ethnically-sensitive classroom environment and a
million related things like parent-teacher conferences.

“These things are mostly unknown in the countries from which the new
teachers come. And it becomes another responsibility for us who have
plenty to do already to make sure they are aware. And naturally our
students suffer.

“I feel sorry for them because they aren’t bad people. But they are
way out of their league.”

Another teacher summed up the H-1B teacher invasion this way: “I guess
if the U.S. can’t outsource teaching jobs to India, we’ll import the
person to the job.”

The H-1B program, and other non-immigrant visa similar to it, remains
the single most effective destructor of high tech labor in this
country. It brings in low-quality, low-cost labor and lets it delude
itself into thinking it is benefitting this country—all too often in
the name of “diversity”.

Basta! Our classrooms are diverse enough. And our children have
suffered the consequences long enough without adding ineffective
foreign-born teachers into the already poisonous mix."


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