Some U.S. school districts are increasingly turning overseas to fill teaching positions, hiring educators who accept lower salaries than their American peers, Breitbart reports. Tighter visa restrictions introduced during the Trump administration, however, now threaten this approach that undermines qualified teachers in America. One rural district in North Carolina reflects this pattern: after recruiting a teacher from the Philippines, officials noted that roughly 3,600 foreign educators were working in similar roles nationwide, largely because many American teachers feel underpaid. In Halifax, international teachers now comprise the majority of the workforce—109 out of 156 educators across 11 schools—with 75 on H‑1B visas and the remainder on J‑1 visas, according to the Border Belt Independent.
The Filipino teacher profiled in the report defended the hiring practice. “A lot of local American teachers are leaving schools because they don’t feel like they earn enough,” he said. “We’re helping to fill the gaps. We’re not taking jobs from locals.”
Critics, however, contend that these arrangements effectively substitute higher‑paid American teachers with lower‑paid foreign hires, allowing districts to contain labor costs. In an interview with The Dallas Express, contributor Kellen Jones in Irving, Texas, highlighted how guest‑worker programs affect staffing, wage patterns, layoffs, and local tax use.
“When people hear ‘H-1B,’ they tend to think it’s a distant Washington issue,” Jones said. “In reality, it affects who gets hired, who gets laid off, what wages look like, and how local tax dollars are spent in places like Irving.”
“This isn’t just about immigration policy in the abstract,” Jones continued. “It’s about whether communities are subsidizing labor decisions that displace local workers or suppress wages, and whether taxpayers are getting an honest accounting of where their money is going. The program has legitimate tradeoffs, and we should be truthful about what those are.”
He added that education lies at the center of the challenge facing U.S. labor markets. “Arguably the biggest subsidy that comes from taxpayers is in the form of education,” he said. “There is no greater and more direct transfer of wealth from the tax payer than to the H-1B worker at every level of government than this.”
Citing Dallas ISD as an example, Jones reported that the district employed about 1,200 H‑1B workers over the past five years, most in bilingual education. Legal immigrants were therefore recruited to teach students who may not yet speak English. Even amid staffing shortages, districts have prioritized expanding administrative ranks instead of raising teacher pay. According to Education Week, administrative staff grew 37 percent in 2022 while enrollments inched up modestly. A 2024 analysis found that Washington state’s spending on administrators jumped 54 percent, compared with a 25 percent rise in teacher pay and a 66 percent surge in non‑teaching staff costs. Another study showed that between 2000 and 2019, public school administrative positions increased by 87.6 percent, while teaching roles rose just 8.7 percent and student enrollment only 7.6 percent.
Many observers argue that the solution is clear: make teaching a more viable career for Americans.