(NAME-MCE) L.A. Schools Recruit Teachers From Abroad

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Published: August 21, 2007
L.A. Schools Recruit Teachers From Abroad
By The Associated Press

Los Angeles, CA

The Los Angeles school district is recruiting about 115 teachers from
abroad because of a teacher shortage, marking the largest group of
foreign hires in more than 20 years, according to a media report.

The teachers from the Philippines, India, Spain and Canada will teach
math, science and specialized courses for students with learning
disabilities. They comprise about one-seventh of new hires for the
2007-2008 school year.

The group is the largest that the Los Angeles Unified School District
has recruited during its more than 20 years of hiring from abroad,
according to a report published Monday in the Los Angeles Daily News.

About 100 of the new hires are from the Philippines.

"We would prefer to hire Americans, but it's not generating enough
interest to fill those positions here," the district's foreign
recruitment specialist, Imelda Fruto, told the paper.

Experts believe U.S. school districts will keep having to look beyond
the country's borders to staff their classrooms as baby boomers retire
from teaching jobs and too few qualified candidates take their place.