In a typical spring, high school students from around the world — China, Vietnam, South Korea, Spain, Germany, Italy and many other countries — would be scheduling interview appointments for the visas they need to study in Maine.
This year, they can’t, and the rural high schools that have come to depend on them are worried.
The federal government stopped scheduling visas for international students in late May to expand vetting of their social media, days after revoking the visas of all international students at Harvard University. The pause is also affecting younger students, and schools are in the dark about what’s next or how to respond.
“The public discourse is this is a college thing, and it’s not,” said Jeff Burroughs, head of Lincoln Academy in Newcastle.
The pause comes as independent high schools in Maine are close to finally rebuilding international student populations that fell sharply during the pandemic. Over the past 15-plus years, many have relied on the tuition these students pay to keep the doors open in the face of declining local populations and state funding formulas that don’t cover the full cost of educating them.
As technology makes the world more connected, experience with peers from global backgrounds also becomes increasingly necessary to prepare local students for adulthood, according to administrators.
“When I graduated, my world was central Maine,” said Arnold Shorey, head of Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft. “And that’s totally different for today’s student.”
Most programs have rolling admissions, so it’s hard to gauge the full effect of the visa pause before the start of the next school year. Some students are already accepted and have visas. Others may not apply until later in the summer.
But at least 10 new students have been accepted to Foxcroft and can’t get visa appointments. At Lincoln Academy, six were in that situation as of mid-June, about a third of a typical incoming international class size. Foxcroft’s international students make up around a quarter of its 400-plus enrollment. Lincoln aims for about 10 percent of its roughly 600 students to come from overseas.
The schools also worry existing students won’t be able to return.
It’s possible they won’t be cleared in time for the school year if the pause continues. Even if interviews are reinstated soon, Shorey said the pause has already done damage and likely created a backlog that will lead to more delays.
