Now, things are about to get even tougher — for the district and for teachers like Tomimbang.
Last month, President Trump unveiled a plan that requires employers to pay a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas. In his announcement, Trump specifically denounced high-paying tech jobs that he said were filled by too many foreign workers.
However, the impact on schools and educators will be significant. According to Department of Homeland Security data, more than 20,000 educators are in the country on H-1B visas — the third most common occupational group for the program.
“I don’t have a teacher in my district who makes $100,000 a year,” Novasio says. For school districts, “paying these fees on top of a salary is simply going to kill the H-1B for education.”
The change is a blow to some districts’ long-term strategy to keep teachers in classrooms.
Many current Hardin faculty are on cultural exchange or J1 visas; they must return to their home country every few years and stay there for at least a year.
When that happens, Novasio struggles to fill those classrooms. His goal was to transition many of his current professors onto H-1B visas so they could stay three to six years, with options to extend. However, this option is financially untenable.
Further adding to the turmoil and uncertainty, the White House earlier this year temporarily halted interviews with J1 visa applicants for about a month, before reinstating the program. The pause has made recruiting for this year’s down times even more stressful.
Despite the challenges, would Tomimbang recommend others to come teach in the United States, amid a changing immigration landscape? Yes, she said.
“It’s worth the wait, it’s worth the time and it’s worth the effort.”
An “unintended consequence”
Asked about the impact of the H-1B proposal on teachers, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told NPR that “President Trump promised to put America’s workers first, and this common-sense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages.”
Novasio isn’t sure this applies to teaching, particularly at Hardin. International teachers in his district, he said, earn the same salary as their domestic counterparts. Salaries are dictated by the teachers’ union.
The White House, in a statement, also directed NPR to the text of the president’s proclamation — which would allow the Department of Homeland Security to grant exceptions to the fees. It is unclear whether such an exemption could be granted to schools and school districts. When asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson deferred to the White House.
Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director for AASA, an organization representing school principals working to adapt to the new rule in Washington, says she is hopeful about this part of the text.
“We think this is an unintended consequence,” she says. “And we are doing everything we can to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security exempts educators.”
However, along with this proclamation, the administration released a proposal to move the H-1B visa from a lottery system to a weighted scale giving preference to higher earners. The average salary for teachers in the state of Montana in 2023 was $58,600, well below what many tech workers earn.
According to Pudelski, this proposal could be the most harmful to schools and educators.
“As you can imagine, education is not a particularly lucrative profession,” she says. “So we are very concerned that this could pose a greater long-term barrier to the use of these visas for educators.”
In the meantime, Novasio is already looking for new teachers for next year, abroad and at home. He is working with state officials to create an apprenticeship program for teachers and develop a stronger local pipeline.
His district already has partnerships with local colleges. “It’s not for lack of effort that we’re failing to fill these positions.”
He hopes people “will have some empathy for these people who give up their lives and come to our country to help teach our children.”
