Schools to lose teachers, students under federalization

The tourism industry and local business won’t be the only ones affected by new federal immigration laws; schools within the CNMI will also see a decrease in students and teachers.

On June 1, 2009, the transition period will begin, limiting the number of contract workers in the CNMI. Non-U.S. resident students and contract teachers and staff within the Public School System and private schools could be affected. Students who are U.S. residents but have foreign national parents could also be affected.

It’s obvious schools will be affected, but like Grace Christian Academy principal Faith Dela Rosa said, it’s unclear to what extent.

“Right now, we do not know,” she said. “Yes, we do have some contract workers in our school, but we don’t know yet what will happen and the students also. We don’t really know yet, it depends on the regulations that will be finalized.”

More than 60 percent of the school’s staff members are contract workers, Dela Rosa said. She was not sure how many students could be affected.

The GCA principal said the visas for skilled professionals would possibly help retain foreign national teachers. Under the H-1B visa for highly skilled professionals, the visa holder must have a four-year postsecondary degree and certification that no U.S. citizen is available for the job. The visa holder must be paid the U.S. national prevailing wage. The visa can be extended indefinitely.

Dela Rosa said the school has been conducting cost-cutting measures in order to be able to pay the wages that will be necessary, as well as keep up with the minimum wage increases currently in effect.

Hiring U.S.-qualified teachers has always been a struggle, Dela Rosa said.

“That has always been the priority, to get the U.S. citizens or the ones here,” she said. “The problem is, even if they are here, they will go back and back out.”

There have been instances when teachers leave after a month or even a day, she added.

The Public School System also has problems hiring mainland teachers. This year it has been more difficult than in the past.

PSS was expected to hire 20 teachers from the U.S. for this school, Ramon Diaz, acting Human Resources director, earlier said. The past two years PSS had been able to hire 30 to 35 teachers.

Christina Tudela Masga, principal at Hopwood Junior High School, said she doesn’t expect the new immigration laws to affect the teachers at her school as much as the students. She is currently in the process of calculating how many students the school will lose due to the new laws.

At least 460 of the 10,369 students enrolled in the Public School System this year could be affected because they are not U.S., FSM or FAS citizens. But many more students could be affected if even one of the parents is not a U.S. citizen.

Jimaela Ham, an 8th grader at Grace Christian Academy, is a U.S. citizen but her parents are both Filipinos. Ham said her parents have discussed obtaining green cards.