Facing stubborn state-wide shortages in bilingual and special education teachers, Spring ISD has turned to classrooms overseas — even as federal immigration policies threaten to slow the foreign teacher pipeline.
Since last school year, 60 foreign teachers have come to the suburban district on cultural exchange visas from all over the world. The 33,500-student school district launched its international teacher initiative last school year after struggling to fill staff vacancies and critical teaching shortages, joining other districts like Houston, Aldine and Dallas ISDs that use short-term J1 visas to bring in foreign teachers.
“The international teachers provide us a great way to fill those needs because … they’re not brand new teachers that are right out of the college setting,” said Alex Gonzalez, Spring ISD’s assistant superintendent of talent acquisition and engagement. “We would have most likely had 60 more vacancies this year had we not tapped into this international teacher pipeline.”…