Alaska school districts that have grown to rely on international teacher hires are likely to do without them this year, even after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s fee hikes for highly skilled worker visas on Monday.

The Trump administration raised the fee from $5,000 to $100,000 last September, which put Alaska school districts’ international teacher hiring on hold. Districts have increasingly relied on international hiring to fill an ongoing teacher shortage across the state, particularly in rural and remote districts. The nearly 2,000% cost increase put the visas out of reach for districts that are already facing severe budget deficits and school closures.

Lisa Parady, executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, a non-profit leadership and advocacy group that supports districts in hiring, said the court ruling was welcome news. However, she said there is concern the federal government could appeal and reinstate the fee. 

“So that puts us in a really hard place. We are thrilled because we believe this is the right interpretation of the law, and we really hope that it will be sustained, and that the government will not be able to get a stay or would lose in an appeal, but in the meantime we’re still a little bit in limbo,” she said.

She said that school districts are unlikely to hire through the H-1B visa program now, due to the risk of losing tens of thousands of dollars of application processing fees if the federal government appeals the court decision successfully. 

“The chance of taking a risk of losing those fees, if they could submit now, is just a risk. And I think our districts are largely risk averse because they don’t have those kinds of funds to take risks with,” she said. 

Jennifer Schmitz, director of the Alaska Educator Recruitment and Retention Center, a division of the Alaska Council of School Administration, said some districts previously lost processing fees and even new international hires from the Philippines when the Trump administration enacted the increased visa fee last fall.

“Most districts are going to want to wait and watch over the next month or two and see what happens, and then maybe move forward,” she said.

Currently, roughly 570 international teachers are working in Alaska via the visa program. And there are over 1,200 teacher and staff openings in Alaska posted on a job board run by the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center.

The H-1B visa is valid for six years. As those Alaska-based teachers’ visas expire in the next several years, Parady said Alaska schools will reach a crisis point for hiring.

“We’re going to be in a full-blown crisis, because we don’t have people standing in line to fill those positions,” she said. “We have been operating in the largest crisis and educator shortage in America, and at the local level in Alaska’s the worst crisis we’ve ever seen. And so while we aren’t feeling the full effect of those not being available to districts, we’re going to. Unless this terrain changes.”

The Alaska Legislature unanimously passed a resolution in May that urges the Trump administration to waive the steep visa fee to allow the continued recruitment and hiring of international teachers. 

Last year, Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced legislation to create an educator exemption from the increased fee. After the Monday ruling, her office said she will continue to work with the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin to create an administrative waiver from the fee to help bring teachers to Alaska.

“I will continue working to eliminate this fee permanently so that Alaska’s students are receiving the best education possible, regardless of the outcome of future legal challenges,” she said in a social media post on Monday.