I’ve written extensively about immigrants previously (10
articles, to be exact) but an article in the local Tucson newspaper from April
of this year illustrates why we REALLY need immigrants, especially in our
schools.
Math teacher Arneil Aro arrived
from the Philippines about a month ago. He
begins his classes with his students at TUSD’s Magee Middle School lined up for
their personalized handshake, one of his new classroom traditions since
arriving in the U.S. with 26 years of teaching experience.
Aro
was one of six teachers who came from the Philippines to teach at Magee this
year — three math teachers and three special-education teachers. Although there
are differences between classrooms in the U.S. and overseas, Aro’s experience
with students crosses cultures.
This is the second year that
several Pima County school districts have hired teachers internationally to
lower high vacancy rates, a problem across Arizona due to low teacher
salaries.
Despite the raises that Arizona
teachers got last year, the state is ranked 49th in teacher pay in elementary
schools and 48th in secondary schools, according to Expect More Arizona, a
nonpartisan education advocacy group.
Tucson Unified School District
hired 14 teachers from India last year, who have all renewed their
contracts for a second year, according to Director of Human Resources Renée
Heusser. The district hired 17 teachers this year from the Philippines,
and TUSD is still looking at international applicants to continue filling
vacancies.
The international teachers are
coming to the U.S through the Exchange Visitor Program, or J-1 visa. Across the
state, schools hired 187 international teachers last year through the program.
It is meant to promote “the interchange of persons, knowledge, and skills, in
the fields of education, arts, and science,” according to U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services. The visa
participant typically covers any costs, with no cost to schools or districts. Teachers with the program have a minimum of two
years’ professional experience and at least the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s
degree,
Aro and two other newly arrived
math teachers, Christen Hoyo-a and May Italia, say their sponsor, through the
State Department, gave them a handbook and not much more support.
The teachers only had some
clothes they brought with them, so their new principal helped put together an
online sign-up to collect household supplies and furniture. It was shared with
Magee employees and local churches. Lindsay also took the teachers shopping for
groceries while they waited for their first paychecks.
With close to three decades as
an educator, Aro’s salary is the same as any experienced teacher new to the
district, and he receives a $5,000 one-time hiring incentive for hard-to-fill
positions. TUSD teachers with 15 or more years of experience start at $46,700,
and if they have a master’s degree, which Aro does, they receive an additional
$2,000 annually.
In
the Philippines, Aro says he was paid about $400 a month. He plans to send most
of salary home to his wife, four grown children and two grandchildren.
Although a lot of the old white folks don’t like to admit it,
our country is changing rapidly, and white Caucasians will be in the minority
in less than 20 years.
If you examine the demographics of the six local high schools
that I have taught at, you are not going to find a lot of Caucasian students.
Catalina has the highest percentage, at 24%, but it drops off quickly after
that. Pueblo is 97% minority, and Cholla is close behind, at 92%. The majority
of the minority students are Hispanic, but there are a handful of
African-American and Asian students in the mix as well.
Across America, we are facing numerous problems besides
teacher shortages in Arizona due to a lack of an adequate number of immigrants.
It’s also true that there is a shortage of farm workers in Florida, California,
and Texas for the same reason.
The medical profession still has a high percentage of doctors
who are Caucasians, but the best brain surgeon in the country works at Johns
Hopkins in Baltimore, and he came here as an illegal immigrant from Mexico, who
survived his early years here picking crops in California.
Due largely due to the efforts of the Nazi in the White House,
Stephen Miller, we are definitely headed in the wrong direction with respect to
immigration. Even if you aren’t Catholic, the best advice about immigration
comes from Pope Francis, who said, “build bridges, not walls”.
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