Is this real? Or another publicity stunt for election year?

Who knows? Let's wait and watch.

Abbott suggests banning public schools from using H-1B visas
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/abbott-suggests-banning-public-schools-from-using-h1b-visas

Quote:

---

Gov. Greg Abbott says he will push to ban Texas public school districts from employing H-1B visa holders.

The proposal would require lawmakers to pass new legislation during the next legislative session.

More than 300 Texas public school and charter employees currently hold H-1B visas and could be affected.

---

🚨JUST ANNOUNCED🚨

TX Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation to BAN H1B visas in Texas public school.

This expands on his previous order to freeze H1B visas for public schools.

Abbott is also pushing new legislation that prohibits public schools from accepting gifts,… pic.twitter.com/3pAQBU0M2C

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 18, 2026

What is the goal of this? IIRC there's a teacher shortage. It's not like other industries where you have Americans applying for jobs and being replaced by these people.

It's just election pandering, nothing can be done until next year and by then nobody will care.

Badass


I'm far from an Abbott fan but this is nice

WTF does every single industry need H1-B instead of hiring Americans for a fair price? It just doesn't make sense unless the answer is "to not hire Americans to work here in America because we don't want to pay for them"

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

If the H1-Bs don't have command of the English language they should have stayed in their native lands.

Maroon Dawn said:

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WTF does every single industry need H1-B instead of hiring Americans for a fair price? It just doesn't make sense unless the answer is "to not hire Americans to work here in America because we don't want to pay for them"

---

Free markets
Capitalism

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

---

Well the bandaid needs to be ripped off some time. No better time than now.

Raise salaries and magically watch qualified Americans show up to take those jobs. Not rocket science.

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

---

Well the bandaid needs to be ripped off some time. No better time than now.

Raise salaries and magically watch qualified Americans show up to take those jobs. Not rocket science.

---

Or do it in 3 years after we've incentivized more to become teachers. I'm really not a fan of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Now is quite literally the worst time to do this.
But hey, if you want high school dropouts, druggies, and people that quite literally can't hang on to any other job teaching our youth, then more power to ya.

I don't trust anything abbot 'sip says in the year leading up to an election. He might as well say every Texan will have their property taxes cut to zero.

How many H1B teachers are there in Texas?

infinity ag said:

---

Maroon Dawn said:

---

WTF does every single industry need H1-B instead of hiring Americans for a fair price? It just doesn't make sense unless the answer is "to not hire Americans to work here in America because we don't want to pay for them"

---

Free markets
Capitalism

---

And we've never had this. It's not the end of the free market to say you can't exploit our labor laws by lying about a shortage you've created by letting in foreigners who you force to work for less in order to get more foreigners you can force to work for less

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

---

Fewer

Do you know why food aid to starving countries is bad?

Because it kills the market for local farmers, who now have no incentive to produce locally

Do you know why importing foreign labor is bad?
?
?
?

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

People don't want to pay teachers more. Hell the state also seems pretty opposed to funding public education in general.


I got out of teaching for a variety of reasons, but a big one was the pay. In addition to my normal teaching duties I also ran 3 clubs and coached for several years. The pay was always pretty **** for what was required and what I had to deal with. In the end, I got burned out and left the profession entirely.

The problem with paying teachers more is that school districts don't have the funds.

infinity ag said:

---

Maroon Dawn said:

---

WTF does every single industry need H1-B instead of hiring Americans for a fair price? It just doesn't make sense unless the answer is "to not hire Americans to work here in America because we don't want to pay for them"

---

Free markets
Capitalism

---

Free markets still need guard rails in a productive, wealthy, first world country like the United States. If there are a bunch of ****hole countries with 10x our population willing to come here and work for **** wages and live in ****hole housing in ****hole neighborhoods, that is not free market capitalism. That is allowing external third world ****hole countries to disrupt the free markets in our country and destroy the standard of living for actual United States citizens. We have to maintain a standard in this country that is higher than the Indian slums, not allow ourselves to be dragged down to that level. In order to maintain that standard, we need higher barriers to entry.

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

---

Well the bandaid needs to be ripped off some time. No better time than now.

Raise salaries and magically watch qualified Americans show up to take those jobs. Not rocket science.

---

Or do it in 3 years after we've incentivized more to become teachers. I'm really not a fan of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Now is quite literally the worst time to do this.
But hey, if you want high school dropouts, druggies, and people that quite literally can't hang on to any other job teaching our youth, then more power to ya.

---

Where did dropouts and druggies come from? You just made it up. Scare tactics like what corporations do - 0 "omg omg if we don't get foreigners, we are dooooomed, no innovation.... we will lose the AI lead.... ".

Calm down. Nothing will happen.
Let us treat teachers with respect and dignity and pay them what they deserve and many will get come back. Even some older retired teachers can be persuaded out of retirement for a few years.

I think some of y'all just have completely unrealistic expectations of what is possible in terms of jobs and labor. I keep hearing that we just need to hire more Americans and pay them better and it will solve all our problems. And yeah, I agree, that money will generally solve the problem. The issue is we don't have a large enough supply to solve this with money.

If you start paying teachers more, it will take a few years for college students to start pursuing educational teaching pathways. And then in a few years perhaps some of those going into teaching would have otherwise gone into social work, or been research assistants, lab techs, or nurses. So now we have a shortage of those. We already have a shortage of many types of jobs.

Right now there are over 10,000 H1B physicians and thousands more on J1 visas. And then there are 10's of thousands, if not over 100,000 that were previous H1B/J1 that are now US citizens. It takes a minimum of 11 years after high school to become a fully licensed physician in the US. How do you replace thousands of physicians through an 11+ year training pipeline?

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

---

Well the bandaid needs to be ripped off some time. No better time than now.

Raise salaries and magically watch qualified Americans show up to take those jobs. Not rocket science.

---

Or do it in 3 years after we've incentivized more to become teachers. I'm really not a fan of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Now is quite literally the worst time to do this.
But hey, if you want high school dropouts, druggies, and people that quite literally can't hang on to any other job teaching our youth, then more power to ya.

---

Where did dropouts and druggies come from? You just made it up. Scare tactics like what corporations do - 0 "omg omg if we don't get foreigners, we are dooooomed, no innovation.... we will lose the AI lead.... ".

Calm down. Nothing will happen.
Let us treat teachers with respect and dignity and pay them what they deserve and many will get come back. Even some older retired teachers can be persuaded out of retirement for a few years.

---

Hell of a straw man comparing tech where we have an abundance of workers to teachers where there is a noticeable dearth

nai06 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

People don't want to pay teachers more. Hell the state also seems pretty opposed to funding public education in general.


I got out of teaching for a variety of reasons, but a big one was the pay. In addition to my normal teaching duties I also ran 3 clubs and coached for several years. The pay was always pretty **** for what was required and what I had to deal with. In the end, I got burned out and left the profession entirely.

---

Sad to hear this.
I am sure there are many people who want to be teachers but cannot pay their bills being one. This just means that we are not educating our kids while India and China are.
This explains why people say we need foreigners. Attacking teachers is probably part of the conspiracy which results in needing foreigners.

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

Fully agree, but that is a multi-year pipeline solution. Passing a ban now would just remove workers without any adequate replacements. Theres no one qualified to immediately backfill the position. This is taking a problem and actively making it worse

---

Well the bandaid needs to be ripped off some time. No better time than now.

Raise salaries and magically watch qualified Americans show up to take those jobs. Not rocket science.

---

Or do it in 3 years after we've incentivized more to become teachers. I'm really not a fan of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Now is quite literally the worst time to do this.
But hey, if you want high school dropouts, druggies, and people that quite literally can't hang on to any other job teaching our youth, then more power to ya.

---

Where did dropouts and druggies come from? You just made it up. Scare tactics like what corporations do - 0 "omg omg if we don't get foreigners, we are dooooomed, no innovation.... we will lose the AI lead.... ".

Calm down. Nothing will happen.
Let us treat teachers with respect and dignity and pay them what they deserve and many will get come back. Even some older retired teachers can be persuaded out of retirement for a few years.

---

Hell of a straw man comparing tech where we have an abundance of workers to teachers where there is a noticeable dearth

---

You are the one who brought up druggies and dropouts out of nowhere and got called out.
Go read your own post.

traxter said:

---

I think some of y'all just have completely unrealistic expectations of what is possible in terms of jobs and labor. I keep hearing that we just need to hire more Americans and pay them better and it will solve all our problems. And yeah, I agree, that money will generally solve the problem. The issue is we don't have a large enough supply to solve this with money.

If you start paying teachers more, it will take a few years for college students to start pursuing educational teaching pathways. And then in a few years perhaps some of those going into teaching would have otherwise gone into social work, or been research assistants, lab techs, or nurses. So now we have a shortage of those. We already have a shortage of many types of jobs.

Right now there are over 10,000 H1B physicians and thousands more on J1 visas. And then there are 10's of thousands, if not over 100,000 that were previous H1B/J1 that are now US citizens. It takes a minimum of 11 years after high school to become a fully licensed physician in the US. How do you replace thousands of physicians through an 11+ year training pipeline?

---

This is true which is why it is hard to do it cold turkey. This is like a person who was on drugs for years and we expect him to just drop it. There will be reactions and withdrawals. Maybe that is the only way out.

There is no easy solution to this. We have to pick our poison. In some areas we don't need foreigners. In some areas we do.

I personally have no problem if Congress sets a plan to wean us off this drug of foreign labor. 3 years? I am personally fine. But I don't think any politician will do it and if governments change, then we are back to where we were.

But I also know that if it is extended, greedy pols will just keep kicking the can and we will see no end in sight.

nai06 said:

---

infinity ag said:

---

Iced-T14 said:

---

Exactly what our already stressed school systems need. LESS teachers.

Edit: Fort Worth ISD has 308 uncertified teachers which represents a 569% increase over last year. If there's one place we need all the certified help we can get, it's teaching

---

Then train more teachers and pay them better so they stay.
Foreign workers is not a permanent solution to everything.

---

People don't want to pay teachers more. Hell the state also seems pretty opposed to funding public education in general.


I got out of teaching for a variety of reasons, but a big one was the pay. In addition to my normal teaching duties I also ran 3 clubs and coached for several years. The pay was always pretty **** for what was required and what I had to deal with. In the end, I got burned out and left the profession entirely.

---

I left public education in Texas 15 years ago, with pay being the main reason among many. I started teaching in international schools abroad and have never looked back. Now, I earn a fair salary and am able to live a very comfortable life.

I honestly can't imagine going back to teaching in Texas. My parents are getting older, so I have definitely looked into it, as the time may come when I don't have much of a choice. But with the way the cost of living has skyrocketed in the U.S., it would mean a borderline poverty lifestyle for me.

If qualified foreigners actually want to come and teach in public schools, they should be welcomed with open arms.

infinity ag said:

---

Is this real? Or another publicity stunt for election year?

Who knows? Let's wait and watch.

Abbott suggests banning public schools from using H-1B visas
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/abbott-suggests-banning-public-schools-from-using-h1b-visas

Quote:

---

Gov. Greg Abbott says he will push to ban Texas public school districts from employing H-1B visa holders.

The proposal would require lawmakers to pass new legislation during the next legislative session.

More than 300 Texas public school and charter employees currently hold H-1B visas and could be affected.

---

🚨JUST ANNOUNCED🚨

TX Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation to BAN H1B visas in Texas public school.

This expands on his previous order to freeze H1B visas for public schools.

Abbott is also pushing new legislation that prohibits public schools from accepting gifts,… pic.twitter.com/3pAQBU0M2C

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 18, 2026

---

I had no idea we were using H1B to hire teachers to educate our children in Texas. Thanks for sharing. I also didn't know Dinesh D'Souza is Brandon Gill's father in law. Now I know why I thought I was in Pakistan at the Round Rock Target yesterday.

Good thing the state sets the amount of funding schools receive. This could be resolved with a signature but there's no kick backs if they fund schools fully.

traxter said:

---

I think some of y'all just have completely unrealistic expectations of what is possible in terms of jobs and labor. I keep hearing that we just need to hire more Americans and pay them better and it will solve all our problems. And yeah, I agree, that money will generally solve the problem. The issue is we don't have a large enough supply to solve this with money.

If you start paying teachers more, it will take a few years for college students to start pursuing educational teaching pathways. And then in a few years perhaps some of those going into teaching would have otherwise gone into social work, or been research assistants, lab techs, or nurses. So now we have a shortage of those. We already have a shortage of many types of jobs.

Right now there are over 10,000 H1B physicians and thousands more on J1 visas. And then there are 10's of thousands, if not over 100,000 that were previous H1B/J1 that are now US citizens. It takes a minimum of 11 years after high school to become a fully licensed physician in the US. How do you replace thousands of physicians through an 11+ year training pipeline?

---

Fair enough point, but my contention is with your bolded. My wife graduated from A&m with a degree in sociology. We both graduated in May 2008, just after Lehman Brothers folded during the financial crisis and it took us about 8-9 months to find jobs. I found one in technology (Economics grad) and she got her emergency certification in education and taught middle school math.

After doing that for about 4 years, she moved on to be a middle school instructional coach and after doing that for 4 years, she pursued her Master's in Educational Leadership from Tceh (heh). Since then, she has been promoted several times in several different districts in the Austin area and is now a Director of Curriculum K-12 for 2 years now. She has moved her district rating from a D to a B in 3 years, which is incredible progress.

The Asst. Super that she reports to is recommending and encouraging her to get her PhD from sip to further progress her career.

Wouldnt that be the trifecta? B.S. A&M, M.S. Tceh, PhD sip?

Anyway, my point is, you dont necessarily need the pipeline in Education grads to support an inflow to the field, all you need is smart, motivated people with a desire to do well and move up. I see bumper stickers on every truck saying how much they will pay for a commercial license, and the benefits, whatever. Do districts advertise emergency certifications in the same way? I would be there are a lot of laid off engineers that could easily pivot to the profession and do well in educating our children (and likely less the kinds of teachers you produce by teaching them about Gender Unicorns in class, btw) -- but there seems to be no outreach. All people know about teacher is they get paid poorly, but in my wife's district, she could actually make a similar salary by going back into the classroom with all of the stipends set up for high achievers.

Zero reason that we need the out reach to go across the pacific/indian ocean. There are people here who can easily do the job.

Ban the parents from teaching and kids from attending and he can be governor for life.

LOLOLOL.

Raising salary will not increase teaching pool. Teachers like me who left aren't going to come back just for higher pay. I don't care how much they paid me, I'd never go back unless they fixed the underlying problems - lack of accountability, parents, stupid ass state testing, etc.

infinity ag said:

---

Is this real? Or another publicity stunt for election year?

Who knows? Let's wait and watch.

Abbott suggests banning public schools from using H-1B visas
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/abbott-suggests-banning-public-schools-from-using-h1b-visas

Quote:

---

Gov. Greg Abbott says he will push to ban Texas public school districts from employing H-1B visa holders.

The proposal would require lawmakers to pass new legislation during the next legislative session.

More than 300 Texas public school and charter employees currently hold H-1B visas and could be affected.

---

🚨JUST ANNOUNCED🚨

TX Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation to BAN H1B visas in Texas public school.

This expands on his previous order to freeze H1B visas for public schools.

Abbott is also pushing new legislation that prohibits public schools from accepting gifts,… pic.twitter.com/3pAQBU0M2C

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 18, 2026

---

Abbott leading from behind, by the polls, what maga wants, and what DeSantis did long before him on pretty much everything.

So, yeah, Abbott could have done this years ago, but this is not at all a stunt for the elections. Not. At. All.

How about ban them and their families from enrolling instead.

How about no more H1-B types 'teaching' state college classes? No good memories of foreign profs and their dismal abilities in speaking English.