laska has been relying on H1-B visas to help fill gaps in teaching positions across the state, and with new federal fees impacting those visas, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, wants to protect school districts from those fees.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska has been relying on H1-B visas to help fill gaps in teaching positions across the state, and with new federal fees impacting those visas, Sen. Lisa Murkowski wants to protect school districts from those fees.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant, employer-sponsored visa for foreign professionals in “specialty occupations” requiring at least a bachelor’s degree, commonly in STEM, healthcare, or education fields. It is valid for up to six years, but must be renewed in three-year increments. Last year, President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 fee per new H1-B visa. On Friday morning, Murkowski introduced a new bill that would exempt public schools from those fees. “As soon as this proclamation was released last year, I sounded the alarm with the administration about the importance of the H-1B visa program to Alaska’s school districts,” Murkowski said in a press release. “Our public school classrooms have been facing a staffing crisis for years, but teachers in Alaska on H-B visas have been instrumental in bridging that shortage and serving our students with talent and care. “This legislation offers a commonsense exemption that will ensure Alaska’s schoolchildren have access to more high-quality educators while keeping class sizes reasonable.” A joint resolution was proposed last month in the Alaska Legislature, urging the federal government to waive the new H-1B Visa fees for teachers in the state.Lisa Parady, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, which supports districts with hiring and recruitment efforts, says there are 573 international teachers working in Alaska, and 341 of them use H-1B visas. “In some rural districts, visa teachers make up 50% to nearly 80% of the teaching staff. School districts already invest $6,000 to $12,000 per teacher to recruit and sponsor educators through the H-1B visa process. Adding a $100,000 federal visa fee has made it financially impossible for many districts to continue hiring the teachers their students depend on. Without an exemption for K-12 public education, rural schools across Alaska would face severe staffing shortages and significant disruptions to student learning,” Dr. Lisa Parady, Executive Director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said in a press release. It’s not just rural Alaska schools that would be affected. In Anchorage specifically, 66 teachers hold H-1 B visas in the current school year , the largest number thus far, according to Galvin’s office. Galvin noted that more teachers in the Anchorage area hold J-1 visas, a type of visa that is undergoing changes from the U.S. State Department. When asked where most of these international teachers came from, Galvin’s office found that the majority of H-1 B visa holders are educators from the Philippines., in the Kuspuk School District alone, 60% of the teaching staff are H-1B holders, and all of those visa holders are Filipino. “Filipino culture shares similar values with Alaska Native cultures of community and family ties, and their degree programs are similar enough to the U.S.’s that credential verification is easy,”“Integration is often seamless for the dominant group that uses H-1Bs. Cultural integration is made easy in part due to the origin of the foreign educators and the programs that AERRC manages.” Sullivan and Murkowski have both independently written letters to the former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, asking for exemptions.Child kidnapped nearly 6 years ago from California found more than 2,500 miles away from home‘That was my last resort’: Iditarod rookie recounts frantic bison encounter on trail ‘Nothing quite like a 1,500-foot splash wave’: Scientist describes firsthand account of landslide, tsunami damage‘A failure to communicate’: Senate resources chair says confidence in LNG developer is lostPilot Robert Everts given a"snow salute" on his last Part 121 flight into Fairbanks airportStrong chemical smell forces 1-hour flight halt at 4 major DC-area airports
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