Dale Ebcas teaches special education at Joseph and Olinga Gregory Elementary School in Upper Kalskag. (Emily Schwing/KYUK)
When special education teacher Dale Ebcas moved from his home in the Philippines to the small Alaska village of Upper Kalskag in the winter of 2020, the warmest layer he brought with him was a trench coat.
“I was imagining weather like, you know, Korea,” Ebcas laughed. “Because I’m a fan of watching Korean movies and I’m like, ‘Oh, they just wear trench coats.’ It looks like it could work.’”
The average temperature in the coldest month in the Philippines is about 78 degrees Fahrenheit. In contrast, the climate in Upper Kalskag is semi-arctic and snow can cover the ground for more than half of the year. Needless to say, the trench coat wasn’t enough. Ebcas had to borrow a down jacket from the principal of the school where he had been hired.
Its school district, the Kuspuk School District in western Alaska, is about the same size as the state of Maryland. While the region is large, the student population is small: just 318 children spread across seven villages, none of them connected by a road system. Here, like many other rural school districts in the United States, nearly 40 teaching positions are difficult to fill. That’s why the Kuspuk School District is bringing educators like Ebcas from more than 5,000 miles away. In fact, there are so many that they now make up more than half of the district’s teaching staff. It is one of many school districts in the country that are addressing the teacher shortage by turning to special visas that allow foreign teachers to come to work in the United States.
Ebcas is from the city of Cagayan de Oro on the Philippine island of Mindanao, an island with a population of more than 26 million people. In Upper Kalskag, on the other hand, just over 200 people live. Although the winters are long and the community is small, Ebcas has been very successful. Earlier this year, the Alaska Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education honored Ebcas with the Individual of the Year award for Special Education in Inclusive Practices. Earlier this month, he was also recognized as one of 20 teachers in the 2024 Alaska Educators of the Year.
“I really think that award just means that, as a school district, we are doing everything we can to help the kids here in the village. That we are really trying hard to promote inclusion and understanding with children, with and without disabilities,” said Ebcas.
Ebcas said he enjoyed teaching in Alaska so much that he encouraged other teachers he knew from the Philippines to join him. His aunt, Vanissa Carbon, now teaches second grade in Upper Kalskag. Although she said winter in Upper Kalskag is long, she has been pleasantly surprised by life here, where the population is predominantly indigenous. “The people here are also like Filipinos. Their culture is somewhat the same in terms of close family ties, being together on occasion and helping each other,” Carbon said.
In the Kuspuk school district, teachers who come from the Philippines say they can make 15 times more money than at home, plus benefits. And they have access to teaching tools and technologies that are not as available in the Philippines.
“I was quite fascinated by the fact that we have resources that are really accessible to students with special needs,” Ebcas said. He pointed to tools like a “talking pen,” which helps students learn to read, among other technologies. “We don’t have these types of devices in the Philippines. “It is very expensive,” he stated.
The teachers who come to the United States from the Philippines are highly qualified, said Madeline Aguillard, superintendent of the Kuspuk school district. “These were highly educated people, often with multiple master’s degrees or even a doctorate, even after we did an evaluation of foreign credentials,” she said.
Aguillard did his Ph.D. Research on the special education system in the Philippines. She said the requirements for students working toward teaching degrees there are not that different from those required in the U.S.
“Their studies were purely 100% based on the American model of students receiving special education services,” Aguillard said.
He said his research was in the back of his mind when his school district opted to hire foreign teachers.
Both Ebcas and Carbon are here on J-1 visitor visas, which are valid for three years and can be extended for two more. The J-1 is a cultural exchange visitor visa, and J-1 visa holders often hold summer service positions related to the travel industry in Alaska. Child care workers, including au pairs, also use J-1 visas. Nationally, there are more than 5,700 teachers in the U.S. on J-1 visas. Ninety-one of them are in Alaska.
“They have program requirements where they have to share not only their culture, but also learn about the culture that they are immersed in for their work,” Aguillard said. “A big part of education in rural Alaska specifically is the emphasis on cultural heritage and keeping that culture alive, whether it’s Alaska Native culture or whatever culture an individual brings with them to the space they’re in.” “, said.
Aguillard said teachers organize Filipino-themed events in her school district. “A couple of our teachers have organized information nights about the Philippines, so they will decorate the entire gym, cook, and give a lecture on Filipino cultural traditions,” she said.
Aguillard said J-1 visas have had a dramatic positive impact on his school district. “We went from having zero applicants for positions for a year-long position to over 100 applicants from extremely qualified and experienced people who want to come teach our students,” she said.
Still, Aguillard said the teacher shortage in the Kuspuk school district is so severe that 20% of teaching positions were never filled this year, even with teachers on J-1 visas. Now the Kuspuk school district is looking for ways to keep foreign teachers on staff for more than five years. One option is the H-1B visa, a specialized occupation visa that paves the way for immigration.
Kuspuk is not the only remote school district in Alaska that uses U.S. State Department visas to fill teaching positions. More than 350 miles to the south, the Kodiak Island school district hired an immigration attorney to obtain H-1B visas and is also hiring teachers in the Philippines.
At an Alaska Senate Finance Committee hearing in March, Kodiak Island School District Superintendent Cyndi Mika said the district is now hosting its own job fair in the Philippines. “This year we went to both Manila and Cebu City,” she said. “We went to Cebu (city) because it is a remote rural area and we knew those are the types of teachers who would integrate best into our community.”
In Upper Kalskag, Ebcas extended his J-1 visa for two more years, but at the end of the next school year his time in Alaska will also run out. She said it is a disappointing reality of the J-1 visa program that he cannot stay to continue the work he has already done.
“I could have continued with the things I do with the community and kids if I could have lasted longer than five years,” Ebcas said. “I already consider this as my family, the community here, the kids here.”
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