AmerLisa

All school districts are not created equal.

ScousePete

My suggestion would be to forget the US and look at international schools overseas who are always looking for qualified English-speaking teachers. My other half taught in South America for six years (Guatemala and Colombia). When she went she did not know any Spanish and is now fluent.

The British schools overseas and the American schools overseas pay the most and will often help with flights and accomodation.

Pulaski

There are a small number of British schools in the US too, we considered one for little Miss P (it's an excellent school, but just wasn't what we were looking for, but it is likely our fall-back option if the school we selected doesn't work out). Anyhow, they only hire "the brightest and the best", and can afford to be very picky, only hiring teachers with multiple years experience. The chances of a new graduate being hired by such a school is zero.

Sally Redux

Maybe - but from what I've seen of private schools they pick the cheapest, their requirements for qualifications are not as strict as public schools.

steveq

Funny, a similar argument is being made in the uk, state schools have to employ 'qualified' teachers, ie who have the PGCE, academy schools do not, neither do private schools, but the teaching in private schools is clearly superior....

Jerseygirl

My daughter attended private schools on both sides of the pond and IMO what you say is very true. It is my experience that often the people who more or less run the schools are old alums...whose families have sent their children to the school for generations. They are extremely selective about the staff and how the school is operated.

Pulaski

There are many dozens of private schools in the area where we live, and what you say of private schools is probably generally true. Given the fees they charge I don't even know how many of them survive, and many therefore do perhaps pay their staff poorly. But like most other things in life you generally get what you pay for, and the local British American School is not a bargain basement establishment.

Jerseygirl

We were paying $25K per year in school fees back in 2002. Therefore the fees went quite a long way to finance the running of the school. The majority of parents were extremely rich and would think nothing to donating huge amounts of money to the school...think hundreds of thousands...in some cases millions of dollars.

Beaverstate

But did you have a great football team? I am serious.

Pulaski

You cannot be serious!

jenninedinburgh

All here have given great advice.

If you want to go into HE, you might consider:

1) If one of you did extremely well in your degree, start looking at and applying to PhD programs in the USA. They generally take 5 years to complete and pay a stipend (albeit very low but liveable if the university is in a small town/rural area - usually around $30-$35K per year). For you both to move together however, you would have to be married!

2) If you did not do that great in your first degree (but still really well), you/your bf could potentially do a PhD in the UK (you would need a Masters first for most programmes whereas in the USA a masters is not usually required) and become an expert in your fields. You could then build up a network with other experts in the USA and potentially start off by doing visiting professorships which could lead to a full-time role (note however that jobs for those in the humanities with PhDs are very scarce, so you might consider another area for a PhD). If you worked you *sses off and had a good publication list before finishing the PhD, you might be able to secure employment with a US university while finishing up your PhD. Again, if you want to go together, you need to be married if you both aren't doing this option.

3) A third option (although not tied to academia) would be to look at other countries where it could be just a little bit easier to get a visa - Canada or Oz...but I don't really know however - they just seem to be a little bit easier.

Good luck.

Hotscot

I don't know if the OP ever came back...

For many people it seems that with the size of America, amongst other considerations like the familiarity through tv and hols...that there must be opportunity to move. Additionally many people have heard of others who did it...you know...my brother knows a guy who was a brickie who now has a villa with pool in Florida, with his own business blah, blah...

Were those types of story ever true? ie. is it harder to get here than it was say, late 60's 70's? Or are these stories urban myths or not quite the whole story.

In any case it's obviously quite a shock for those interested to find out how difficult it actually is.

jenninedinburgh

Probably got discouraged...not an easy pill to swallow when one has no idea how difficult it is to move to the USA. They are very young however and am sure there are many, many options for them - maybe not the USA, but as teachers, they can potentially go many other places - ESL teaching for example.

Rose tea

Try closer to $16-18K for a field like education.

However, I agree with you that this is the best way to go, and also that they probably need to be married. If one partner goes on an F2, though, they can't work.

Pulaski

I think it was easier, for example annecdotally I heard recently that it used to be relatively easy for a nurse to get a visa. I think other sorts of businesses also used to have more visa options, OR were willing to pay for the visas.

The truth is that you might "know a brickie" who immigrated to the US, but you might not know that, he's (only) here on an E2, or that his father-in-law was a US serviceman who stayed after WWII, or that he was born in the US when his father was in the US on a contract as an engineer in west Texas, or he got transferred over by Barrett Homes as a project manager, or..... etc.etc. The truth is that, between family connections, company transfers, education visas, and transatlantic marriages, there are tens of thousands of British citizens immigrate into the US every year. The fact that you aren't going to be one of them is a tough pill to swallow if you'd set your heart on it.