November 15–22, 2001

cover story

"We Had Dreams"

Homesick and in debt, Indian teachers hired to fill gaps in the Philadelphia public schools are learning hard lessons about education and business in America.

by Daniel Brook

part 1 | part 2

On the night of Oct. 2, the Passage to India restaurant in Center City was closed for a private reception. Inside, nearly 50 teachers, decked out in suits and saris, filed past platters of samosas and trays of salmon tikka. The teachers had been brought from India to take unfilled math and science positions in some of America’s toughest classrooms.

After the guests were seated, Michael Vanjani, founder of Teachers Placement Group (TPG), the private firm that had recruited them, addressed the crowd of Indian teachers and American school administrators. "We hope the experiences gained from these teachers will help [students] understand the complex issues of the global economy," Vanjani says.

It was a noble hope — and two months into the school year, it is clear that in addition to getting knowledgeable instructors, students are being exposed to a culture from halfway around the world. The irony, however, is that it’s the new Philadelphia teachers who’ve been exposed to the complex issues of the global economy. By finding them jobs, getting them visas and whisking them from South Asia to Southeastern Pennsylvania, TPG has exposed them to globalization’s unprecedented opportunities for travel and cultural exchange. But by giving the teachers inequitable pay and benefits that keep them separated from their families, the company has also exposed them to the global economy’s new opportunities for exploitation.

Bringing in teachers from abroad is the latest attempt by troubled school districts to fill teaching positions few Americans want. Between the lower pay and added difficulties of teaching in the inner city, many highly qualified teachers opt to work in the suburbs. The problem is particularly acute in math and science, where private industry offers lucrative opportunities for potential educators. As Maryann Greenfield, director of recruitment for the School District of Philadelphia says, "For the last three years we’ve really been stepping up our recruitment, [but] on any given day we do have some vacancies." This year, Philadelphia schools opened with 85 vacancies, down from 180 last year.

When Philadelphia school officials heard last winter that the Chester Upland district was using teachers from India, they contacted its recruiter, Teachers Placement Group of Plainview, N.Y., and drew up a contract for the company to provide up to 30 instructors. TPG agreed to screen potential teaching candidates and send to India two representatives of the Philadelphia district on an all-expenses-paid trip to conduct interviews. Any teachers the district brought in would be direct employees of TPG. The district merely agreed to pay the company the salaries it would normally pay teachers coming in from outside the district. TPG’s profit would be derived from passing on only a portion of those salaries to the teachers. "None of [our arrangements with TPG] have cost the school district or the taxpayers money," says Peter Bent, assistant director of recruitment for the Philadelphia schools.

While school districts in the U.S. were drawing up contracts with TPG, over in India, the selection process was already under way. During the winter, TPG placed ads in Indian newspapers offering the opportunity to teach in America. Many teachers jumped at the chance, sending resumés to one of TPG’s four Indian offices. Particularly well-qualified candidates were called in for a series of interviews, and those who made the cut were invited back for interviews with American school officials in March. Most of the finalists had master’s degrees and significant experience teaching in Indian schools. Some even held doctorates. (More than a dozen of the TPG’s 27 Indian teachers in the Philadelphia schools were interviewed for this article, but none would allow their names to be used.)

Looking back on the process, many of the teachers currently in Philadelphia thought the meetings with school district officials were strange. They were surprised that the representatives seemed so focused on issues of classroom management and discipline. Teachers were asked how they would deal with two boys talking during class and what they would do if the boys refused to listen to them. One teacher said he wasn’t asked a single question about his subject, only about discipline. For Indian teachers accustomed to having students rise when they enter the classroom, the questions were jarring.

Some seemed downright bizarre. One teacher says he was asked how he would deal with African-American students. "I told them ‘I’ve never met one. If you tell me what they’re like, I’ll tell you how I’d teach them.’"

Despite the strange questions, the teachers wanted to come. In India, having worked in the United States is very prestigious. As a superpower and the world’s largest economy, America looks like the promised land to middle-class Indians who see the U.S. beamed down to them on satellite TV. One teacher sums up the prevailing attitude: "When you get the opportunity to go to America, everyone says, ‘Take it!’"

"To my kids, coming to the U.S. is like going to outer space," says another.

While some had reservations about the quality of America’s schools, having seen coverage of Columbine on CNN, others assumed that America’s schools would be the best in the world. One teacher says her image of America from TV was all "skyscrapers and brainy people." Another explained the logic behind her idea of America. "I thought because it’s a developed country, it [must be] because its people are intelligent and hardworking."

Of the teachers interviewed by Philadelphia district officials, 28 were hired. Each signed a contract with TPG agreeing to pay the company a roughly $7,000 placement fee. About two-thirds was paid up front; the rest would be due six months after arriving in the states. In America they were promised salaries of at least $34,500, varying based on education level and years of experience.

The teachers, nearly all of whom are married with children, hoped to use their American salaries to bring their families to America. Some hoped to use their teaching position as the first step toward a green card or American citizenship. Others planned to teach for a few years and move back to India with the experience of having been to the U.S., not to mention a healthy stash of cash. Most teachers had no concrete plans, but intended to weigh their options once they and their families arrived.

The extreme inequality between the First and Third worlds makes money matters between them seem almost surreal. In India, teachers are part of the urban middle class in a nation where the majority of the people are farmers and where the average income is roughly a dollar a day. Surrounded by rural poverty and urban shantytowns, teachers live in large, comfortable homes. They have been to college in a nation where most women and many men are illiterate in their own language, let alone English. Teachers can afford to travel throughout India and own consumer goods like phones and televisions. Yet if they were ever to leave India and travel to a developed country like Japan or the United States, they would be poorer than the poorest people. In fact, the plane ticket alone would cost several months’ salary.

A teacher in India makes about $3,000 a year, which can be supplemented by tutoring on the side. This is nearly 10 times the income of the average Indian, but less than a tenth of a U.S. teacher’s salary. As one Indian teacher puts it, "We’re only here because of the currency gap."

TPG’s initial fee of around $5,000 is nearly two years’ pay. To raise the money, teachers borrowed from friends and family members. Some took out loans from banks, putting up their houses as collateral. One teacher even mortgaged his father’s property. Still, they had faith in the currency gap. With a guaranteed salary of $34,500, surely the debts would be repaid. Still, some became suspicious when TPG’s Cleveland-bound teachers received letters from the district disclosing their salaries while the Philadelphia-bound teachers received nothing. One TPG teacher now in Philadelphia says he saw a Cleveland-bound teacher’s letter promising a salary of $44,000. When he asked a TPG representative in the company’s Hyderabad office if he would receive a similar salary in Philadelphia since he had similar qualifications, he says he was told, "Yes, very likely."

The educators arrived in America in late August. The Philadelphia teachers were housed in the Conshohocken Marriott where they underwent orientation. Two days before the start of the school year, each teacher signed a contract TPG had prepared specifying his or her salary. All were above $34,500 and below $40,000 with the possibility of bonuses. The pay scale for other teachers coming into the Philadelphia district ranges from $32,598 to $54,538. While many Indian teachers were unsatisfied with their pay, having assumed that their advanced degrees or years of experience would merit much higher pay as it did for their Cleveland-bound counterparts, they were hardly in a position to negotiate. Thousands of miles from home, in debt to banks and relatives, and without jobs to return to in India, there was nothing to do but, perhaps, complain for a moment and sign on the dotted line.

TPG’s Michael Vanjani defended his practice of not disclosing teachers’ salaries until their arrival in the U.S. It was not until "that time [that] we had their credentials evaluated," he says.

On the first day of school, the teachers realized why discipline had been stressed in their interviews. Instead of two boys misbehaving, many found only two boys behaving. The rest of the class defied their authority. One Indian teacher quit that day. Colleagues believe she left because of the lack of classroom discipline. TPG, which refunded her placement fee and paid for her return plane ticket, says she left for family reasons. Regardless, it soon became clear to the remaining teachers that their primary classroom responsibility was simply maintaining order, not actually teaching their subjects. During interviews conducted in late October, many teachers expressed fear that they were forgetting their subject matter since they had to teach at such a low level.

Some said the discipline problems were so serious that they were afraid to go to work. A rumor that a student had thrown a stone at a teacher’s face spread through the Indian teachers, many of whom were quite shaken. As one teacher says, "We go [to school] with fear in our hearts."

Despite the problems, the Indian teachers universally hailed their co-workers and administrators who they say have helped them deal with the culture gap and the challenges of teaching in the inner city.

The next big surprise came on payday. As the teachers stared at their pay stubs, they saw nearly a third of the salaries going to taxes of one sort or another. Philadelphians may be accustomed to paying high taxes, but the Indians, used to total tax rates of less than 10 percent, were unprepared. Many say they thought the $34,500 figure quoted by TPG was take-home pay. They claim taxes were never discussed.

Vanjani says he told his teachers back in India that taxes would range from 15 percent to 25 percent, depending on the district they were in. Assuming this is true, 15 percent is still a low figure. Even the teachers in low-tax South Carolina owe more than 15 percent, the minimum federal tax rate to which state and local taxes are added. Furthermore, all Philadelphia teachers pay more than 25 percent of their income in taxes.

The other shock was benefits. TPG’s Philadelphia teachers have full health and dental benefits, but unlike other Philadelphia teachers, their spouses and children are not covered.

In India, the subject of benefits was mentioned briefly on a "Frequently Asked Questions" sheet provided to the teachers by TPG. Under the question "What are the kinds of benefits that American schools normally allow a foreign teacher?" the response read, "American schools give health insurance. Other benefits offered may be life insurance and workman’s compensation." The same FAQ sheet was given to all teachers regardless of where they were headed in the U.S. No extra information was provided to the Philadelphia-bound teachers, though their health insurance plans were less comprehensive than those of the other teachers.

The Indian teachers, now in Philadelphia, admit they didn’t think to ask whether the health benefits would cover their families. In India, teachers generally do not have health insurance and pay for health care out of pocket. Since doctor’s fees and medicine costs are low, this rarely presents a problem. The teachers say they did not realize how expensive health care would be in the U.S. and accordingly did not appreciate the importance of health insurance coverage.

Since the teachers planned to bring their families over, they now realize that their inadequate health insurance is a gravely serious problem. According to the terms of the teachers’ visas, spouses may enter the country but are not eligible to work, making it impossible for families to be covered through another employer. "We only said yes [to the job offers] because we thought we could bring our families by Christmas," says one teacher. "We came for our kids," says another, "but now we’re not sure they can come."

When asked whether the lack of health benefits was deterring TPG employees from bringing over their families, Vanjani says, "We suggested that to bring the families right away is not to their advantage. They need time to settle into a new country." Many teachers say Vanjani told them the same thing when they complained, insinuating that keeping the families split up was a matter of choice, not necessity.

But health insurance is not the only barrier to reuniting their families. Having seen Philadelphia’s public schools, teachers are wary of bringing their children over and enrolling them. "We’re scared of putting them in these schools, and we can’t afford Catholic schools," said one teacher. Some have contemplated moving to the suburbs if their families ever came. Others have college-age children and realize that they would be unable to afford tuition.

The teachers now recognize that they face a very difficult decision: working alone in the U.S. and scraping some money together to wire home, or bringing over their families and living hand to mouth. Supporting a family on an after-tax income in the $20,000 range with no health insurance is hard enough. Factoring in $7,000 of debt and one-way plane tickets costing around $600 apiece, it is almost impossible.

part 1 | part 2