Trump’s H-1B Visa Fee Could Strain Universities and Schools

The New York Times ^ | Oct. 8, 2025 | Madeleine Ngo

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Higher education leaders and public-school superintendents say they depend on skilled foreign workers to fill critical roles.

President Trump’s $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas will have major consequences for tech companies and financial firms. But the effects of the new fee will also ripple across the education system and show up in classrooms across the country.

Higher education leaders and public-school superintendents say the steep fee will hurt schools that depend on foreign workers to fill critical teaching roles. Some university and college presidents said it would impede their ability to hire faculty members through the visa program, which allows educated foreign citizens to work in “specialty occupations.” Others said their school districts could not afford the fee, making it harder for them to find math and special education teachers.

The change is yet another blow to colleges and universities that have been squeezed by the Trump administration’s barrage of attacks on higher education. Federal officials have frozen billions in research funds, demanded hefty payments from top schools, intensified vetting of student visas and pursued civil rights investigations into dozens of universities.

Administration officials say the H-1B visa program lets employers sideline American workers and suppress their wages. They have argued that the new fee will help counter that by encouraging employers to prioritize hiring domestic workers.

But some education leaders said they worried the change would make institutions less competitive and restrict their ability to hire the best candidates.

“It’s not as if this is done on a whim because we’re trying to replace American workers,” said Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. “It is done based on what the Trump administration is calling for...”

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: china; h1b; india

[EQAndyBuzz]

Plenty of those people are waiting on a job like that. We can’t get them because H1-B’s got them. Now we can. I voted for that.

[zeestephen]

USA universities, USA non-profit laboratories, and USA federal, state, and local government agencies, can hire an unlimited number of H1B workers, that do not count against the alleged 510,000 annual H1B quota.

No one knows the total number of H1B workers at those organizations, and no one knows the total number of Green Card workers they sponsor.

[boxlunch]

Well boo-hoo, the little commie factories losing some of their foreign funding to push their brainwashing. So, so sad. Maybe they will need to cut some underwater basket weaving intersectional gender marxism studies and professors. What a shame.

[Regulator]

“the alleged 510,000 annual H1B quota”

Remember they get to bring the whole family.

There’s also a work permit for the wifey. Back in the ‘90s, all the C programmers in the Santa Clara valley were Indian women...who were the wives.

So just assuming an average of 4 people in the family (which is way conservative), that’s actually about 2M people who are here under the quota.

Which is why Cupertino high school, nearly 100% White when it opened in 1958, is now just 10% White, and 71% “Asian”, meaning Indians/Chinese/Pak/etc.

Got that? A high school, generally considered to be one of the best in the country (made that way by heavy effort of the citizens in the ‘60s-’70s) is now overwhelmingly occupied (the correct word) by people who had absolutely NOTHING to do with it.

And just remember! No such thing as “The Great Replacement”.