Filipino Teachers Find More Money, Challenges In Maryland

WASHINGTON -- U.S. schools have been recruiting teachers from the Philippines for some time. Many have come to Prince George's County, and in Baltimore classrooms, one in every ten teachers is Filipino.
 
In her documentary "The Learning," filmmaker Ramona Diaz follows four of them as they face their first difficult year in Baltimore schools.
 
"They have come to know their students really, really well," Diaz says, "and I think it's because the students trusted that they were going to stay, and the next year they'd see them again."
 
In inner city schools, high teacher turnover has taken a toll on both learning and discipline. "A lot of the kids ... are not used to their teachers coming back year after year after year," she says.
 
Leaving the Philippines for Maryland can increase a teacher's income 25 times, but it's not easy money.
 
"In the Philippines, cultural expectations are that kids should be seen but not heard, but in this culture, in the U.S., it's very different."

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