Filling The Classroom Void, U.S. Schools Are Recruiting Foreign Teachers To Fill Shortages

-- While the United States is working to keep some immigrants from coming to live here, it's actively seeking others. CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports that thousands of teachers are recruited from abroad each year.

A team of top officials from Baltimore has traveled to Manila to conduct an immigration raid. Specifically, it's a raid to hire Filipino teachers. If the interviews go well, school officials will hire every Filipino teacher in the room, 81 of them, to teach math, science and special education in the city's public schools.

Back at home, recruiter Patrick Crouse is the principal at a special needs school. When you try to recruit for special ed in America, he says, it's almost a waste of time.

In the United States, he says, "I could go out for recruitment and I might see five or 10 teachers. ... Overseas we saw hundreds."

Baltimore has recruited more than 200 teachers from the Philippines so far, and while administrators say they are pleased with the quality of these teachers, they are doing this because they have to.

There is a shortage of teachers, not just in Baltimore, but nationwide. Nevada's Clark County imports math and science teachers from Canada. Topeka, Kan., brings in teachers from India and Spain. Dallas brings in bilingual teachers from Mexico and Chile. At least 10,000 teachers are needed — from abroad — every year. --