Mexico and Illinois are working out details for a new program intended to take much of the burden of recruiting international teachers who are bilingual in Spanish and English off of individual school districts. The program was announced this week during Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to Chicago, according to “Mexico, Illinois join to supply bilingual teachers,” which was published yesterday in the Daily Herald.
See “New Mexico Joins California in Looking South for Teachers,” an article I wrote for Education Week in November 2004 about how New Mexico and California had signed agreements with Mexico to encourage teachers from that country to work in those states for up to three years. I mentioned in that article that 23 states and four individual school districts then had formal arrangements with Spain to bring teachers to the United States for three-year stints.