Amid Visa Uncertainty, MPS Pauses International Teacher Program

Ervis Veliu is one of more than 200 international teachers hired by Milwaukee Public Schools since 2022. Corri Hess/WPR

For the last 15 years, Milwaukee Public Schools helped fill its staff vacancies by hiring international educators.

In 2023, the district ramped up its staffing efforts from around the world, hiring about 200 international teachers to teach Spanish, French, German, ESL and other subjects.

But the practice has largely ended this school year because of the current political climate, said Superintendent Brenda Cassellius.

“We still have many of those teachers,” Cassellius said Wednesday during an appearance at the Milwaukee Press Club. “We support them, and they’re wonderful and they’ve been a wonderful addition to us.”

Cassellius said the decision to end recruitment of international teachers was made months ago, and said the Trump administration’s executive order last week confirmed her decision.

The Trump administration is adding a $100,000 visa fee for high-skilled workers who enter the country through the H-1B visa program. That’s the program that allowed international teachers to work in MPS.

The previous cost to the district was $3,500.

“Of course, that would be impossible then for us,” Cassellius said of the new fee. “So imagine if we were starting this and it was a major strategy for us to use for our vacancies right now. That’s just too much money.”

At this point, Cassellius doesn’t believe teachers currently working in the district will have to reapply for their visas. But she says she doesn’t know what the future holds.

According to state data, 372 employers in Wisconsin employ a total of 2,245 people who have H-1B visas.

The Trump administration has said the program is rife with abuse. The administration contends that despite the rules, many companies use H-1B visas to hire foreigners for less than what they would pay Americans, according to NPR.

A 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute found most H-1B employers do pay international workers less than market rate salaries.

MPS will close at least 5 schools

During the press club event, Cassellius also talked about the district’s ongoing long-range facilities master plan.

Over the next year, MPS will decide how to manage its more than 150 school buildings as student enrollment continues to decline.

Some schools are bursting at the seams. Others are virtually empty.

One of the latest proposals focuses on closing five or six schools.

Cassellius said there are a number of schools in disrepair or more than 100 years old.

“I think it’s going to be, over the next three to five years,  much more than five schools. But I don’t know what that looks like,” Cassellius said. “I’m much more in favor of merging schools and repurposing the schools that are left behind in other ways.”

Casseillius said she would like to see the buildings that are no longer used for schools become housing or community parks and playgrounds.

There are two plans on the table for how students would be reassigned to new schools after buildings close. One plan would relocate all the students from a closing building to another underutilized school. Another plan would allow families to choose the school their children would attend.

Cassellius says she’s in favor of both proposals.

“Every school is different and individual,” she said. “So if you have a school that has 90 kids in it, it may be just that you are working with those individual families and giving them their first choice. I think making sure that you are taking care of the families is the biggest thing.”

Milwaukee Public Schools pauses international teaching program amid visa uncertainty was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.