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American schools are facing a growing pedagogical staffing crisis, especially in rural and low-income areas. The reason, which educational institutions themselves are increasingly talking about, is related to changes in migration policy. In the fall of 2025, U.S. authorities introduced a new fee for processing the H-1B visa for highly qualified specialists: employers now must pay $100,000 to invite an employee from abroad.
The initiative promoted by Donald Trump was conceived as a way to protect local workers, but in the field of education, the effect has been the opposite. In many regions of America — especially rural ones — schools are heavily dependent on foreign educators. Sometimes they make up a significant share of the staff: for example, in one district in North Carolina, 50%+ of teachers came from other countries!
The situation is now changing for several reasons at once:
- It has become too expensive for schools to hire foreigners due to the new fee,
- Local specialists are in no hurry to work in remote or underfunded areas,
- Some already employed teachers are leaving due to stress and tightening immigration policies.
Also there is simply no one to replace the departed educators. According to union data, more than 2,300 teachers work in the US on H-1B visas, and in some schools every fourth teacher is a foreigner. For such areas, the outflow of personnel could lead to serious disruptions in the educational process in the very near future.
School administrations are looking for various ways out of the situation:
- Switching to online learning,
- Hiring teachers without full certification,
- Increasing class sizes,
- Trying to invite foreigners on other types of visas to avoid the high fee.
Back in December 2025, a coalition of schools from 20 states filed a lawsuit attempting to challenge the new rules: the statement says that such a high fee effectively deprives schools of the ability to hire foreign teachers. The court has not yet reached a decision, so the uncertainty remains, along with the risk of a staffing shortage in American schools.
