Public school hiring teachers from out of country!?

I have a simmering cauldron of mixed feelings on this one.

Isn't this our tax dollars recruiting and paying scabs to get around the teachers union?

and/or

An excellent way to interject international diversity into public schools?

Math and Special Ed teachers!?

From the Seattle Times:

Francisco Size came to Washington from the Dominican Republic last year on a type of work visa that each year draws thousands of other foreign professionals into the state.

But the 42-year-old is not a computer programmer or software engineer for the typical high-tech companies using these visas.

Rather, Size works as a math teacher in the Highline School District — one of scores of teachers across the state hired on the H-1B visa.

While use of the visa in the private sector at companies like Microsoft is well-known and hotly debated, less is known about school districts' use of the program. In fact, at least 40 Washington school districts have applied for H-1B visas to employ teachers and staff over the past five years.

For example, Puyallup hired a high-school English teacher from Jamaica, Seattle hired a special-education teacher from India, and Bellevue hired a parent-outreach coordinator from Chile.

Districts say they use H-1B workers to fill teaching positions with long-reported shortages in such areas as special education and math. Districts also have hired foreign nationals as English, elementary-school and substitute teachers. Like any employer using the H-1B program, schools do not have to show a lack of qualified U.S. teachers before they hire foreign workers.