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In this photo provided by South Dakota News Watch, Rob Coverdale, superintendent of the Crow Creek Tribal School District in Stephan, S.D., poses for a photo in his office, Feb. 7, 2025. (Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch via AP)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – When Rob Coverdale started his job in 2023 as superintendent of the K-12 Crow Creek Tribal School in South Dakota, there were 15 unfilled teaching positions.
Within nine months, he had filled those vacancies with Filipino teachers, the majority of whom arrived on the H-1B, a visa for skilled workers in specialty occupations.
“We’ve hired the H-1B teachers because we quite simply didn’t have other applicants for those positions," Coverdale said. “So they're certainly not taking jobs from Americans. They're filling jobs that otherw