The Denver
Public Schools system has found the perfect way to cut education costs: Abuse
the H-1B visa program to replace American teachers with cheap foreign labor.
And here we
thought that the tech companies in Silicon Valley were the only ones gaming the
system to replace Americans on with cheaper foreign workers.
You really
have to give the Denver Public Schools an ‘A’ for effort on this scam. We
didn’t think that liberals would be willing to abuse their own constituents
just to try to save a buck.
Boy, were we
wrong! This also highlights why it’s so important for the Trump administration
to limit this fraudulent, anti-worker program.
The H-1B
visa program was created so that when companies in America can’t find enough
American workers to fill job slots, they can sponsor temporary workers from
foreign countries. The program has been a total fraud from its inception.
Companies
quickly realized that they could bring in foreign workers who would be willing
to work for less pay than American citizens.
Companies
like Disney, Facebook and Microsoft have all been caught forcing American
workers to train their cheaper, less-experienced foreign replacements… and then
firing off the Americans.
One of the
most notorious abuses of the foreign work visa program happened in 2009 at
Hamilton Growers in Georgia. Hamilton supplies fresh produce to Walmart and the
Green Giant brand. On the day when the foreign visa holders showed up to
replace all of the predominantly-black employees, a foreman grabbed a bullhorn
and announced, “All you black American people, Go to the office and pick
up your check.” Obamanomics
at work!
It appears
that school districts are now using the H-1B visa program in an ingenious
fashion. Teachers who stay on the job for a number of years enjoy generous
yearly salary and benefit increases, which everyone knows.
But foreign
H-1B visa holders are only allowed to stay in the US for a period of six years.
The incentive, then, is obviously to bring in as many foreign teachers as they
can possibly get, because the talent pool will stay at the rookie end of the
pay scale. If only a handful of public school teachers make it to beyond the
sixth year, you can dramatically cut costs.
The
mathematics of the scam become even more clear if you examine the pay scale in
the Denver Public Schools. In 2019, a brand-new teacher with a bachelor’s
degree makes a base starting salary of $42,789.67.
By the end
of their sixth year on the job, when H-1B visa holders then have to leave the
country, their salary will have increased to only $44,063.43. DPS provides an
incremental pay raise of only $200 to $300 per year over the first six years.
On the
seventh year of a teacher’s employment by the Denver Public Schools, a teacher
salary suddenly jumps by $1,800 per year. Salary increases each year after that
jump $1,800 to $1,900 every single year.
It’s simple
economics. By employing a pool of foreign teachers, DPS is saving a lot of
money. So what if American teachers are screwed out of jobs in the meantime?
Is there
really some mass shortage of teachers in Denver that everyone was unaware of?
And here’s
an even more important question: Are foreign teachers who speak English as a
second language better able to educate American kids than American teachers?
55% of
Denver’s K-8 schools are performing below expectations on standardized tests
(118 schools out of 214 total). 20 K-8 schools are performing so badly that
they are on probation to continue receiving accreditation from the state of
Colorado.
It would be
interesting to learn how many foreign teachers are employed in the public
schools that are failing the worst in Denver – but it would probably be a hate
crime to publish those results in modern America.
President
Trump has been successful so far in preventing Congress from increasing the
number of H-1B visa recipients during his administration.
Unfortunately,
companies and school districts are still bringing in 100,000 foreign workers
per year through the program to continue crushing American jobs.
It has been
an uphill battle just to keep the number from growing, thanks to everyone from
the New York Times to Republicans in the House and Senate who want to keep
providing cheap labor to their donors.
Maybe if
more public schoolteachers knew their jobs were being given to foreign workers,
opposition to the H-1B program would finally reach a boiling point.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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