Test to Say if Pinoy Teachers Keep Baltimore Jobs

• Tweet
• Pin It

The jobs of hundreds of Filipino teachers in Baltimore public schools are hanging on the results of a “market test” that will show whether they’re still needed for the next school year.

Sources revealed the Baltimore public school system will rely on the “market test” to gauge teaching needs, especially where and what subjects teacher shortages may occur. That would be the time they will decide whether to renew the Filipino mentors’ work permits, one teacher said.

The number of Filipinos in Baltimore public schools has dropped from a peak of about 700 to only 500, according to one teacher’s estimate. Many have gone back to the Philippines.

Just last week, a Filipino teacher returned to the Philippines after being hospitalized for cancer for over 2 months. “She was a doctor back home but worked as a special education (SPED) teacher in Baltimore after getting certified. She went home because her husband, who’s still there, is also a doctor,” one teacher shared with the Manila Mail.

That seemed to underline the sacrifices made by these Filipinos to help American schoolchildren. Most of them arrived between 2005 and 2007 to fill positions in some of Maryland’s toughest schools – so difficult that they scared off many native teachers, one Filipino mentor declared.

Continue reading at ABS-CBN News