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I'm sure there's enough laid off teachers here in the good old USA that could fill these jobs instead of importing "slaves" from the Phillipines (but if this article is true I do feel bad for how they were ripped off too!). And I'm kind of surprised given that public school teaching is probably the most over-unionized white-collar job in America that this was even possible.
Some of the local districts here in Texas have tried the Filipinos, too. Hasn't worked out too well. But they're willing to try almost anything to avoid hiring certified professionals.
Leave it to gullible foreigners to be victims of this scam. Is there some way that the H1B visa program can be eliminated? There are plenty of unemployed in the USA that can fill those jobs, and do a better job than underpaid desperate foreigners can.
Some of the local districts here in Texas have tried the Filipinos, too. Hasn't worked out too well. But they're willing to try almost anything to avoid hiring certified professionals.
When I first decided to go into teaching, one of the recommendations was taht I move to Texas because my engineering degree would have been enough to start teaching on. I would have been given 5 years to get my teaching certs but they would have hired me without certs.
I wish I'd done it. I'd be 7 years into this career and, probably, have a decent paying job by now.
...and after stories like this you wonder why teachers formed unions. Not exactly treated like professionals (unless you get some dead-end admininstrative job).
Our foreign teachers are paid at scale for degree, many have MD certification and are filling slots in Math and Science where there are few US candidates.
When I first decided to go into teaching, one of the recommendations was taht I move to Texas because my engineering degree would have been enough to start teaching on. I would have been given 5 years to get my teaching certs but they would have hired me without certs.
I wish I'd done it. I'd be 7 years into this career and, probably, have a decent paying job by now.
That was true in many places (NYC comes to mind), but NCLB did away with that. Now, depending on the state, you either start with an "emergency" certification or if you have enough past course in your subject you go through an "alternative certification" program that usually gets you some sort of initial certificate for your first year and you go from there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person
Our foreign teachers are paid at scale for degree, many have MD certification and are filling slots in Math and Science where there are few US candidates.
My issue isn't at all that they were paid less than a beginning teacher nor that they actually had the qualifications from their home country, as I don't believe either is the case, it's that given that, they should've looked at American citizens first and after that the fact that these foreigners had to pay someone a good chunk of their pay to get the job in the first place.
In fact, if there was a true "shortage", I'm even OK with this (outside of the having to pay someone to get a job part). There are quite a few schools who want to offer Chinese and/or Japanese as a language at the high school level and the jobs go begging. So alternate certification programs let immigrants from China and Japan enter these programs so they can get the certificate and fill these positions.
The real threat to Teacher's is not "out-sourcing", but rather technology. Computerized education is becoming more and more powerful to the point where classroom filed with say 60~90 computers with one teacher is more effective than a classroom of 25 or so with a single teacher and no computers.
The general task of "teaching" can be done by a machine, for the time being the teacher still needs to be there to deal with non-standard questions etc. In the future you may be able to remove the teacher altogether and just have a lower paid tech/supervisor in the room.
The real threat to Teacher's is not "out-sourcing", but rather technology. Computerized education is becoming more and more powerful to the point where classroom filed with say 60~90 computers with one teacher is more effective than a classroom of 25 or so with a single teacher and no computers.
The general task of "teaching" can be done by a machine, for the time being the teacher still needs to be there to deal with non-standard questions etc. In the future you may be able to remove the teacher altogether and just have a lower paid tech/supervisor in the room.
I imagine the teacher's unions will keep that from happening for a long time.
That said, I actually imagine that unless/until NCLB is completely repealed it will block that from happening given it's requirements for "inclusion" classes and "differentiated instruction". While it may be argued that a computer could have specialized programs for each student, I imagine this being fought on these grounds by far more than the unions for a long time.
I imagine the teacher's unions will keep that from happening for a long time.
That said, I actually imagine that unless/until NCLB is completely repealed it will block that from happening given it's requirements for "inclusion" classes and "differentiated instruction". While it may be argued that a computer could have specialized programs for each student, I imagine this being fought on these grounds by far more than the unions for a long time.
Unions or whoever may fight it, but its not going to matter in the long run. These systems are already being used at the university level and in that environment they will become more and more widespread, its only a matter of time before it starts to trickle down to secondary and than perhaps primary education. Private schools should be much more willing to consider using these systems.
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