Some US schools hiring Pinoy teachers to plug shortage

A nationwide teacher shortage in the United States has prompted Sacramento City to hire six special education and science teachers from the Philippines for the school year 2017 to 2018.

A report on NBC News said Sacramento City Unified School District added more teachers to the 12 hired for school year 2016 to 2017 due to the shortage of teachers who are available for hiring in California and across the US.

According to another report on CBS Sacramento, the Filipino recruits will earn $5,700 or close to P300,000 a month.

Clark County school district also took in 81 teachers from the Philippines to mostly work in special education in public schools.

Alex Barrios, chief communications officer of Sacramento's school district, said they had no choice but to look abroad after failing to find qualified personnel.

A report on Sacramento Bee said Sacramento school officials flew to the Philippines to look for suitable special needs teachers in July.

The Philippines has been a source of teachers due to its fluency in English and the compatibility of the country's school system with the American system.

Nevada and California went through San Mateo, California-based placement agency AIC to supply teachers from the Philippines.

Filipino-born AIC CEO Ligaya Avenida said she's recruited teachers in the past five years, helping over 200 Filipino teachers for SY 2017-2018, up from 160 fro SY 2016-2017, and 120 for SY 2015-2016

She charges $2,500 to process all the paperwork of prospective teachers for placement in the US.

Teachers have their own contract with school districts and are legally allowed to stay in the US for three years under the J-1 nonimmigrant visa program.

Experts believe demand for K-12 teachers will exceed supply by more than 100,000 this year due to poor pay, inability of districts to retain teachers, and proposals by President Donald Trump to cut school and teacher-friendly programs. —Rie Takumi/KBK/KVD, GMA News