President Donald Trump's $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas will have major consequences for tech companies and financial firms. But the effects of the new fee will also ripple across the education system and show up in classrooms across the country.
Higher education leaders and public-school superintendents say the steep fee will hurt schools that depend on foreign workers to fill critical teaching roles. Some university and college presidents said it would impede their ability to hire faculty members through the visa programme, which allows educated foreign citizens to work in "specialty occupations". Others said their school districts could not afford the fee, making it harder for them to find math and special education teachers.
The change is yet another blow to colleges and universities that have been squeezed by the Trump administration's barrage of attacks on higher education. Federal officials have frozen billions in research funds, demanded hefty payments from top schools, intensified vetting of student visas and pursued civil rights investigations into dozens of universities.
Administration officials say the H-1B visa programme lets employers sideline American workers and suppress their wages. They have argued that the new fee will help counter that by encouraging employers to prioritise hiring domestic workers.
But some education leaders said they worried the change would make institutions less competitive and restrict their ability to hire the best candidates.
"It's not as if this is done on a whim because we're trying to replace American workers," said Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. "It is done based on what the Trump administration is calling for — on merit and who's the most qualified."
Dr Pasquerella said many schools depended on the visas to fill positions in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and medical fields. She said she was particularly concerned that the pipeline for foreign physicians would be further constrained.
Although she said that not all STEM fields faced worker shortages, there was still a need in areas like nuclear engineering and material science. She said the new fee would also hurt universities' ability to innovate and make advancements in fields like artificial intelligence because "global collaboration is being undermined"
Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania are among the institutions that have had the most H-1B visas approved in recent years.
Some university leaders said the policy change would impede their ability to hire as many employees who need skilled-worker visas.
Some smaller colleges said they would have to quit hiring new workers through the visa programme entirely.
New York Times News Service