In our tight economy with shrinking property taxes, school system's can only control their costs by controlling what they spend for wages. Aided and abetted by online colleges that can offer foreign teachers the chance to take courses for certification in America, increasingly the solution has been to use H1B to bring in lower wage teachers.
If that were all they did it would be a perfectly legitimate and a commendable solution. The problem is, that bringing in lower wage workers is usually accompanied by laying off Americans so their positions can be filled. That is throughly contemptable.
The way this low wage scam has gone and is continuing in the present, is to identify that there is a shortage. This shortage may be real or it may not. About ten years ago in Hagerstown, Maryland a company building a Staples warehouse claimed that there was a shortage of American workers with the skill to put a roof on a warehouse.
On the face of it that sounds ridiculous and becomes even more so when you realize that Hagerstown had a local of the Buillding Trades union. It becomes apparent that the only shortage was a shortage of workers willing to work for almost nothing.
This con job has been repeated over and over again over the last 10 to 15 years. It would be agregious enough that our Government was complicit in taking jobs from American's to give to lower wage workers from abroad, but when you couple that with the incredible greed of CEO's taking huge bonuses while cutting Americans jobs and wages you have to wonder why we take this all so calmly.
To support my contention that America's teachers are the next to be shown the unemployment line so school districts can hire low wage teachers, in USA Today on 10/28/08 it was reported that, " A growing number of school districts have begun to lay off American teachers and are replacing them with guest workers."
Katie Fairbank, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News on 3/30/09 reported, that the Dallas Independant School District cut a number of teacher's jobs and then applied for H1B visa's. Some teachers claim this was to fill their jobs after they had been released.
In 2006 it was reported that 4 of every 5 H1B workers was from a so called, "Job Shop." This is a job recruiter that makes no effort to hire Americans and are in the business solely to contract out H1B workers at cut rate wages. Dr Norman Matloff of U.C. Davis reported," Its all about cheap labor."
I don't begrudge anyone coming here to work, but with an unemployment rate that some believe may be close to 20%, how does our government justify supporting this continued destruction of Middle Class America and an apparent refusal to hire American workers?
As anyone who has taken education classes with the hope of becoming a teacher knows, we don't have a real teacher shortage when we lose almost half of all those who start teaching after their first year because of frustration with school district politics, curriculum guides that virtually rule out creative lesson plans, and being directed to teach to various tests because of phony testing measures that leave out testing 5 of Gardiner's 7 Multiple intelligences but supposedly demonstrate teacher competance without any real measure of what that means.
If we truly wanted to solve a real shortage we could certainly create incentives for Americans to get the training to fill this void. When it came to the supposed high tech shortage, that was exposed for the lie it was when someone took the time to do ten minutes of investigation and found we graduate 400,000 people with tech degree's while the industry only creates about 150,000 jobs a year.
Why should we believe that replacing American teacher's is anything but another low wage con job and why shouldn't anyone who has been laid off just so their employer can hire a low wage worker not be angry?
Comments
Wonderful commentary, really hits the nail on the head about this issue; by the way an issue that dates back to the destruction of the steel industry in the United States.
Why do USA citizens continually roll over when we are attacked by our own government and corporate institutions? Why do we only go to war with people from another country when they harm or slight us?
It is time for the working class citizens of this country and people who wish to become citizens to stand up in the face of political and corporate greed and injustice and declare war on it. Stop expecting your local representatives to do it for you. Stop listening to corporate shills like LIMBAUGH, BECK and the rest as to what is right or wrong with the political atmosphere, They are owned by Corporate America they are corporate whores.
NO more World Bank, No more WTO, No more corporate welfare. Stop being sheep. REVOLUTION PROTEST G-20 PITTSBURGH 9-20-09
Great article! Ever wonder about the training of foreign nurses working in our hospitals? I remember working on a med-surg floor with another RN from India. In India, nurses are like doctors and make their own decisions; whereas in this country, Nurses share information and keep MDs updated about patient progress,i.e.,lab results,tests,all vital information, etc. One patient was on a Heparin(blood thinner)drip to prevent blood clots for which there is a Heparin protocol that spells out dosing perimeters according to lab results (PT/APTT)that indicate clotting time so the nurse can adjust the dose. This nurse didn't titrate the heparin or inform the doctor of the patient's lab results and the patient died. The nurse was fired but why was she hired in the first place? It's very dangerous for our elected officials to get away with making decisions about education and health care when they don't know a damn thing about how kids learn or how to take care of a sick person. Money corrupts.
In reference to your question about the insourcing of nurses, I worked on a psych hospital that went from hiring its own staff to using temp agency nurses and psych techs to save money. The result was that one night I was the only psych tech on the unit who could speak English in cluding all three nurses. This was an adolescent unit with 18 girls on one side and 18 adolescent boys on the orher. It was a night mare.
The US has a population of 304 million, and a working population (taxpayers) of 145 million; and who is the average American blaming for their problems??
The less than 0.5 million highly educated H1Bs, who are in the US legally, for a max of 6 years!!!
I really feel sorry for this country
SC--I think you need to check your figures. There are more than 0.5 million HB1s working in this country and I would truly debate whether they are all highly intelligent as you say. These workers take jobs away from American workers and are a dream come true to companies who can pay them less money. I bet these workers think they have died and went to heaven in the American workplace where they now have toilets that flush, heat, air conditioning, and clean water to drink. La dolce vita!!!!
You overlook the fact that hiring a H1B has a wage requirement. You cannot hire a person on a H1B unless you meet that requirement as per US law. So it is not solely wages that dicate hiring of people on H1B.
Also, regarding someone's comment regarding air, water, 'toilets that flush' etc, I have only one thing to say- You obviously are a small town person, and have never stepped out of your town in your life. Open your eyes ! No doubt there is still poverty and lack of infrastructure in developing countries, but from the rate at which these developing nations like India and China are growing, it definitely looks like your kids, grand kids and great grand kids will be applying for visas in these emerging nations in search of jobs !
These HB1s don't stay for 6 years pack up and go home! They find ways to stay in American like marry American citizens. They continue working for a pittance while their kids get free scholarships to our colleges and universities because they in turn need to meet their minority quota. And sadly our kids are graduating from college and having difficulty finding a job despite the high cost of their education unless they happen to be in the top 2% of their class or know someone who will help get them hired. I can name 5 bright college graduates who are working for $10/hr. in unrelated fields because they can't find a job in their field. They are all facing huge loans and living with roomates. This isn't my America. This isn't the America I know.
As a software developer whose seen his industry be decimated by importing slave labor, all I can to teachers, nurses, and other professionals is 'Welcome to the club'. Even as unemployment increases, wages go down, and benefits are cut, you'll start noticing the overpaid execs from your industries begging (and bribing) Congress to allow more and more cheap laborers into the country since 'they just can't find enough American workers to fill their open positions.' Get ready to be violated!
PR--Sorry to disappoint you but I have traveled within the U.S. and abroad on both business and pleasure. I am not blaming those HB1 workers. I blame big business. They are the ones running this country, setting the laws, purchasing our elected officials and bankrupting this nation which all began with Ronald Reagan. There are no more Ted Kennedy's who will stand on principal and fight for the rights of those who have less or for what we deserve as a nation. We don't make anything PR! All of our manufacturing jobs are overseas. We literally sold the candy store thanks to our incompetent bought and paid for elected officials.
Karen, Yes I agree that most of the manufacturing has een shipped overseas. But all this dictated by the cost of the finished goods. US has been and will be the biggest consumer of the world- a.k.a 'the world's shopping complex'. It is also a free trade economy, where no-one can stop goods from other countries being sold. We the consumers, buy goods made in China because they are cheap and serve the purpose. This in turn, causes American companies to ship manufacturing to other countries where the costs are less and the end products can be made cheaper. So you see, even if H1B's seem to drive down company costs as they demand less, it may be good for the economy in one way, as the costs then become comparable to these developing economies. Once a balance is achieved and American companies dont see a cost benefit of shipping projects and jobs abroad, jobs will automatically come back to US. This is a normal and logical cycle. It will just take some time.
The problem with the whole idea of the free market is that we seem to be the only ones naive enough and stupid enough to send our jobs overseas while China manipulates it currency to keep a permanent trade imbalance with us and keep their wages artificially lower than ours. In addition they heavily subsidize their manufactoring and protect segements of their economy. We are quite frankly, the worlds suckers. These jobs will never be back and if we are the consumers of the world we won't be for long when we all are expected to work for 35 cents an hour. Insourcing pulls all of America's wages down in much the same way that raising the minimum wage pulls everyone up.In addition, all of us end up with our tax dollars being a huge subsidy for Corporate America's often illegal employment. They pay slave labor wages, we pay for schooling, medical care, social services,food stamps and housing. As we all go broke Corporate America's CEO's offer insult to injury with their bonuses.
PR--What you say is very interesting. Yes, Americans are notorious for spending too much and saving too little, unlike the average Chinese who saves 30% of his earnings. If the goal is to decrease production costs of companies globally to equalize economies what becomes of the average American worker who has either lost a job or whose wages have decreased while the cost of living has risen? You say,"once a balance is achieved and American companies don't see a cost benefit of shipping products and jobs abroad, jobs will automatically come back to US." Giving it all away would seem to weaken this country in terms of national security while other countries like Russia and China continue to grow richer thus more powerful. I think America should tariff all imported goods, stop selling American assets, pass health care reform and the American Free Choice Act to allow workers the right to unionize. We need to remind ourselves that we are a democracy not a dictatorship.
Yes-we should fire all H1bs,pass legislation that prohibits companies from employing anyone not born in the USA, set minimum wage of $35 an hour irrespective of nature of work or performance, and put steep tariff on imported goods. Only then will the USA turn around and become like the more glorious nation of USSR
Inflating the labor pool allows wages to stagnate and causes competition among the working class.
Calling on odd1 and notuk do you read me?
It is all about cheap labor and payola. The point is companies, universities, school principles, research directors all can put more money in their own pockets and coffers by job price cuts. This is selfish dishonest disingenuous behavior - ignoring the losses in jobs and money for their neighbor Americans.
Can it be controlled with H1B caps? No.
In the year 2000 Arlen Specter and Phil Gramm inserted a special no cap exemption for higher education (universities), in the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, S 2045, to "ensure that the U.S. economic expansion will not be impeded by a lack of skilled workers." H1Bs at universities are not controlled by the 65,000 cap.
Perhaps Arlene Specter can remove the H1b number caps from such that the US can import an infinite number of paper mill trained high school teachers as well. H1B s Since 2001, Prince George s County public Schools H1Bs 1,568, Los Angeles 581 Baltimore City 205, School District of Philadelphi
What a bunch of cry babies....fact check:
H1Bs are less than 0.3% of the US workforce.
H1Bs pay all the taxes and get no benefits.
H1Bs are paid prevailing wages if not higher.
H1B cap for the year has not even been reached.
There are 20,000 H1B visas for foreign students of US universities...they have not even been touched because the original cap has not been reached for the year.
You guys are just a bunch of losers but if you don not like the so called H1B invasion then ask the Congress to stop the visa at your own peril.
The rate at with this nation is aging you won't have any intelligent people paying for your "socialized medicine" a.k.a "Medicare" and "VA".
Message for JEN:your grand kids are dumbasses with a 3rd grade education. University of Phoenix is not a real university, nor are IIT Tech etc. Graduating in binge drinking is not nuclear physics.
Anyways after reading the dumbass comments insures your childeren will be working for mine in the coming years.
suckers
Sakibaba, let me enlighten you with the truth and not the fraudulant propaganda you have been told. Lets start with one of my favorite foils, Wall Street, AIG criminal partner to Goldman Sach's laid off 2,000 American tech workers, went to Congress and claimed that there was a shortage of high tech workers, ( Ps there isn't we graduate 400,000 yearly for 150,000 jobs ) and our obliging idiots in Congress gave them more H1B's. They informed the workers they laid off if they wanted severance pay they would train their replacements at half the Americans wages. The prevailing wage law is a flat dab joke. They take the immigrant in and classify him at a different grade to get around the prevailing wage law. Nice try but our own OMB has already determined 2 years ago that H1B was violated with impunity, that the workers were brought in solely so they could be payed less and lastly no one has yet told me why Americans should just obligingly lose jobs to a low wage outsider
Sakibaba--A lesson in restraint and self respect will serve you well my dear if you try biting your tongue rather than demean yourself by judging someone you don't know at all with such profane remarks. After all, you are a lady first and foremost. Do promise Miss Manners you will teach your children to respect others at all times. Children live what they learn. Love is key.
Tim,
What you are saying is a flat lie.
-AIG never went to congress to ask for more H1Bs
-Congress never increased any H1b numbers, not now or ever
-The only guys which wall street laid off were H1Bs - because it was illegal under TARP to employ them
"They informed the workers they laid off if they wanted severance pay they would train their replacements at half the Americans wages." - no such thing happened, you should be sued for defamation
You are claiming that the person that says that thousands of H1-B's were working at AIG is lying. He was talking about before TARP, not after. There were already thousands of those workers there when the restriction against new employees was started.
Many of these H-1b were probably contracted through third parties, so even though they may not have appeared on AIG payrolls, they were working there.
How many millions of Americans have had bad experiences with barely-trained, low-wage foreign workers replacing well-trained, but high-wage American workers ? At this point, almost everyone understands that its not about skills or finding qualified candidates - it's about MONEY and POLITICAL POWER, pure and simple.
The central issue in creating more jobs for Americans in this country is rectifying the imbalance between the power of common American citizens and the power of big money lobbies in Washington. Something needs to be done and eventually someone will emerge from our utterly corrupt political system who is capable of wrestling back control of our government from the lobbies and returning to the people.
Unfortunately, the Democrats have shown themselves to be just as willing to line their pockets with gold as the Republicans. But we will regain control of our government some day and the shift of power will be all the more sweeping for the delay.
Thanks for this column. I am so sick of all the teacher shortage BS that keeps getting propagated. I made the mistake of getting fully credentialed and earning an MA, that means none of all these 'surplus' jobs will come my way.
I added a link to your article in my recent posting related to the overseas hiring of teachers.
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