Several Jackson-Reed teachers are being forced to leave the United States and return to their home countries when their visas expire after DCPS ended a program to sponsor their green cards allowing them to permanently work and live in the US.
The JR teachers are part of around 250 international teachers who came to the country as part of a DCPS program to recruit more teachers by offering scholarships for a green card or legal residency, Washington Teachers Union President Laura Fuchs said.
At Jackson-Reed, ESL teacher Armand Cuevas said that “there are a few teachers here who are just not going to return because they cannot legally stay here.”
Cuevas, who recently testified to the DC Council about continuing the program for teachers, said the termination of the program is “shocking because it’s so hard to find teachers, why wouldn’t you try to keep teachers that actually want to be here?”
Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin said that some of the teachers “had even bought houses and planned for this possibility, only to have the DCPS end the program last winter.”
The teachers were hired as part of a program using federal pandemic aid to admit more international teachers on H-1B work visas. According to Cuevas, the teachers were told that if they performed well on their evaluations, DCPS would help them obtain green cards. In the past five years, DCPS has sponsored 336 H-1B visas—the largest of any employer in the city.
But in August, DCPS announced that it wouldn’t sponsor any more green cards. Last year, DCPS was forced to make substantial budget cuts, and one way they chose to save money was by ending the pilot, citing unanticipated costs like difficulty hiring an attorney and plane tickets.
DCPS spokesperson Laura Feldman said that the district had “made it clear” that the program was designed to be just a pilot. She said there was not adequate funding to continue the program.
Frumin echoed that sentiment, saying DCPS “did not promise to maintain it going forward.” But he added that, given the success of the program, “an expectation evolved that it would continue.”
The teachers’ union has been advocating for the international teachers and trying to get DCPS to continue the program, but they have had little success. Fuchs said that the WTU won $235,000 in the City Council budget for DCPS to spend in 2025-26 on helping teachers get green cards.
However, DCPS said in August that it would not spend the money and instead proceed with plans to end the program. Feldman said that “the single-year funding allotment designated by the DC Council would not sustain resurrecting a pilot program that can take up to nine years of financial and administrative commitment to complete.”
In response to DCPS’s decision, Frumin and the rest of the DC Council sent a letter to DCPS demanding that they spend the allocated money and give full disclosure on what exact obstacles are standing in the way of the program’s continuation.
Looking forward, Fuchs said the WTU plans to continue fighting for this program and has gotten support from several council members.
“Our children and families benefit from the diversity of our teachers,” Frumin said. He emphasized how expanding language options “should be an important goal for our schools.”
The end of the program for international teachers comes as increased ICE presence in DC is already causing angst for many members of the community.
Cuevas said the fear and stress of many students is evident in his classroom. He said that some students have had family members detained and “they have to work more or don’t even come to school because they are working.” He said some students have to make a choice between “putting bread on the table for their family or doing algebra.” •