When I learned that over 300 Filipinos, many not fluent in English, had been unscrupulously recruited to teach in New Orleans soon after hurricane Katrina, placed in “virtual servitude,” and swindled out of millions of dollars, I was propelled into action. That’s when I thought a National Teacher Register was not only expedient, but essential to ensuring that our children receive an excellent education from professional teachers. This is the story:
As much as anything, post-Katrina turmoil throughout Louisiana may have helped the recruiting firm Universal Placement International (UPI) establish a foothold statewide over the past two years. The firm placed over 300 teachers in New Orleans. Filipino teachers, who would make about $4,000 annually teaching in the Philippines, were promised as much as $40,000 their first year in Louisiana — a first year’s teacher’s salary in some districts.
The Filipino teachers paid UPI $16,000 apiece to find and keep a teaching job in the United States. In addition, they were charged a $1,000 “marketing fee,” a $3,920 “processing fee,” a $595 “evaluation and transcript fee,” and a $1,745 yearly “visa renewal fee.” They were charged excessive rent. Some teachers devoted much of their salary to debt payments. For one, those payments ate up nearly his entire take-home paycheck of $2,100 a month: After $1,950 in loan payments and rent, he was left with $150, leaving him precious little to live on and send home to his family. UPI also held visas and refused to let the teachers travel home to visit their families.
Well, education is now being run like a "business."
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