Teacher recruiting questioned

 School officials question overseas trip to recruit teachers

School board members in Topeka Unified School District 501 aren’t ready to sanction another recruiting trip to the Philippines just yet.

The district and others in Kansas have turned to overseas recruits as it becomes increasingly difficult to fill teacher vacancies with certified Kansas educators. But the plan to conduct a third year of recruiting in the Philippines was met with lots of questions Thursday by school board members — the majority of whom are new to their posts. They plan to take up the issue when they meet again in December.

“I just have never found this program to have enough answers there for it,” said board member Betty Horton. “I’m really in general opposed to selling ourselves out in America if we have American teachers who have degrees.”

One obstacle, she pointed out, was that teachers certified to teach in other states can face hurdles becoming licensed in Kansas. The Kansas State Board of Education is trying to ease at least some of the licensing challenges.

“I guess I have been disturbed in general about our willingness to be so willing to go outside of the country to look for teachers when there are so many teachers in this country who, because they don’t have Kansas state certification, are not allowed to teach in our schools immediately,” Horton said.

On Thursday, board members were asked to consider a one-year agreement with HeathQuest Enterprises, of Springfield, Mo. Similar to past agreements, the company would pick up travel expenses for district staff members to travel to the Philippines and interview teachers for difficult-to-fill job areas, such as special education, mathematics, science, and family and consumer sciences.

During the trip, job offers could be made contingent on the Filipino teachers being approved for visas, meeting the teacher licensing requirements, passing a language examination and being able to start work on a specified date.

But while the district isn’t required to hire any of the teachers, board member Ned Nusbaum questioned the ethics of accepting free recruiting trips and the scrutiny that goes into checking the Filipino teachers’ backgrounds and credentials compared to checks made on U.S. candidates. And Nusbaum questioned the timing of the trips, which have occurred early in the year. The teachers, he said, are being hired before the district knows if it can fill some vacancies with U.S. teachers.

“Now if it were July or if it were August I think I would feel better about us making selection of future teachers from a foreign land,” he said.

Board member Peg McCarthy pointed out that waiting until July or August to hire overseas teachers likely wouldn’t leave enough time to get teachers to Kansas in time for the start of the school year. In 2005, teachers from India got a late start on the school year due to paperwork delays.

“I would agree that it would always be my preference to hire American teachers,” McCarthy said. “I’m also aware that the reality is that often the first month into school we still don’t have places filled.”

Horton said she wants to look at the district’s overall recruiting efforts and see what can be done to fill vacancies with U.S. teachers.

In recent years, the district has stepped up recruiting efforts, including by offering pay incentives in difficult-to-fill areas and starting a program to help nonteaching district staff members become certified teachers.

“I would caution against abandoning a process I think has worked,” said board president Doug Glenn.

Board member Nancy Kirk said she isn’t opposed to international teachers, although she prefers the district first try to fill the jobs in the states.

“I agree that the reality is that is not always possible,” she said. “I cannot help but believe in my heart of hearts that a multicultural experience in schools for our students is really valuable.”

source:  The Topeka Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com

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