Some Alaska school districts say they can’t afford to hire and retain international teachers after the Trump administration hiked fees for highly skilled worker visas.
Alaska school districts have increasingly hired international teachers through the H-1B program amid an ongoing teacher shortage. Until September 2025, the annual fee for such visas was $5,000 per person. Now it is $100,000 under an executive order by the Trump administration.
Lawmakers are considering a resolution urging the federal government to waive the fee for hiring new teachers under the H-1B visa program, which they say imposes impossible financial burdens on Alaska school districts.
“This is insurmountable,” said Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage and the sponsor of the resolution, which was heard by the Alaska House Education Committee on March 2.
Galvin said she introduced the resolution at the recommendation of United States Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, to bolster support for a waiver.
“Sen. Sullivan said that resolutions help. When they can go back to [Washington,] D.C. and say, ‘Look, all 60 of our representatives say this is important. It’s critical,’ … it gives him the tool,” Galvin said.
The H-1B visa program provides non-immigrant visas for U.S. employers to recruit highly skilled workers, with at least a bachelor’s degree, in fields such as health care, technology, or education. The visa is valid for up to six years.
Alaska districts also rely on the J-1 visa, a cultural exchange visa program, to fill essential teacher positions, especially in rural parts of the state. The J-1 visa is valid for three years, with the possibility to extend for one or two years. Districts and teachers work with third-party recruitment agencies to apply for visas. In recent years they have shifted to H-1B visas for teachers to help them stay for longer periods of time.
The Trump administration has also changed the guidance for J-1 visa-holding teachers placements, requiring certain access to medical care, banking, and transportation services — effectively barring placements in schools in many small, rural Alaskan communities.
Currently districts are in the process of recruiting and hiring new teachers. As they renew or transfer H-1B visas for next year, they say they cannot afford the $100,000 fee per person.
According to Lisa Parady, director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, which supports districts with hiring and recruitment efforts, there are close to 600 international teachers working in Alaska and 341 of them use H-1B visas.
“Without these educators, class sizes increase, course offerings shrink, student services are reduced, and student outcomes suffer,” said Parady. “International educators are not a luxury. They are an essential part of Alaska’s education workforce.”
There were 345 certified teacher openings on the first day of school this year. Currently there are over 900 openings for teachers and staff posted on the job board run by the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center, a division of the Alaska Council of School Administrators.
“Districts would be forced into the impossible choice: pay millions in visa fees and cut student programs, or grow without teachers and leave classrooms uncovered. Neither option is acceptable for our students and children in Alaska,” Parady said.
Rural districts may be hit the hardest with the visa changes.
In the Bering Strait School District, which serves 15 schools across 80,000 miles of the Bering Sea coast and island communities, 40% of the teachers are international hires, Superintendent Terri Dodd told lawmakers on Feb. 27.
Dodd said the district will lose 14 teachers as their J-1 visas expire this year, and the H-1B visa fee makes it impossible to hire international teachers for those positions.
“If we had to replace them with H-1B (visas) that are $100,000 each, there’s just no way we can do that,” Dodd said. “So we’re going to have to see what that holds for us. I’m sure some of those positions we won’t fill because of budget cuts and things like that. But that’s something on our minds.”
J-1 visa changes may exclude much of rural Alaska
The U.S. Department of State changed the guidance for J-1 visa placement agencies and visa-holding teachers last year, which could make it even tougher for rural school districts to fill teaching positions, according to Jennifer Schmitz, the director of the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center.
The center helps districts with the process of international hiring and recruitment of teachers, also supporting them transition into their new roles, particularly in remote schools in rural Alaska.
“J-1 teachers have to be assigned to locations that have reliable access to medical care, banking services, groceries, transportation, emergency response, things like that,” Schmitz said. “And so they haven’t gone to the extent where they’re making the J-1 teachers in rural Alaska leave, but they’re not able to extend or stay longer, and we can’t put any new J-1 teachers out there, which is the biggest part of the problem,” she said.
For the Kuspuk School District, which spans the middle Kuskokwim River region in Western Alaska, more than 60% of teachers are international hires through both visa programs, according to Superintendent Madeline Aguillard.
Aguillard testified to a House finance subcommittee for education on Feb. 27 that they’ve had success in hiring as well as retaining international teachers.
“It’s been really neat to see our retention rate. So we do have an 86% retention rate of our international educators,” Aguillard told lawmakers. “However, this school year, for our largest cohort of J-1 teachers, it’s time for them to go home.”
After the eligible period of three or up to five years, teachers with J-1 visas must return to their home countries for two years before being eligible to reapply.
Whether the district will be able to hire those teachers back is uncertain. Aguillard said the district has made contract agreements to recognize teachers who want to renew their visa application and return to Kuspuk schools, and many teachers have shared expertise and been honored with teaching awards. “These are fantastic teachers,” she said.
Schmitz said her organization is working with attorneys and districts to understand the guidance and determine which communities remain eligible. “I don’t have an answer yet,” she said.
But Schmitz said many districts that have been working to switch teachers from shorter term J-1 visas to H-1B visas are now confronted with the fee.
“I personally think that if the H-1B proclamation wasn’t in place right now, we would be probably in the process of hiring anywhere between 25 and 100 teachers to help fill the ones that have to go home this summer or other teachers that are leaving,” Schmitz said. “Right now, we’re more in the process of trying to fight this for an exemption.”
Alaska’s senators call for a visa waiver for teachers
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested a visa waiver for teachers shortly after the announcement, in an Oct. 8 letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, whose department administers the H-1B visa program.
“Frankly, if school districts could afford this fee, they would be able to pay some of the highest salaries in the nation and would not have such severe teacher shortages. I do not believe that the President intended for the fee to apply to H-1B teachers, as it would only further hamstring students in rural communities from receiving a quality education,” Murkowski wrote.
A spokesperson for Murkowski said on March 2 that the senator is continuing to press the department, outlining serious consequences for Alaska’s schools.
“She is actively working with colleagues on a legislative fix and plans to introduce a bill shortly to protect Alaska students and ensure they continue to have access to qualified teachers,” said Joe Plesha, Murkowski's communications director, by text on March 2.
Sullivan also penned a letter to Noem on Feb. 25 requesting an immediate fee waiver for Alaska teachers and urged they be prioritized in the H-1B visa selection process. On March 2, a spokesperson for Sullivan that the senator was working on setting up a meeting with Noem to discuss the issue this week.
