I once served on the campus budget committee for a large public university. Over a dozen years, starting in the late 90s, I witnessed many changes in how the university operated. The biggest change was the surge in international students, especially those from China. Those students helped us balance our budgets, hire exceptional faculty, and strengthen our programs.
That institution was hardly alone in benefiting from international students. Today, the United States is a substantial net importer of students — in a way, it’s one of our biggest trade surpluses — with over 1.3 million foreign students attending our schools as of 2023, and the State Department issuing 400,000 new student visas in fiscal 2024. Most recipients are higher education students on F-1 visas, with 60% pursuing graduate degrees. These students attend more than 6,000 institutions spread across red, purple, and blue states. The U.S. is the academic finishing school for the world’s best and brightest, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Research suggests that students on education visas provide a range of benefits for the U.S. These students fill seats as the college student population begins a long-term, downward trend. In addition, these students often pay full tuition, helping many colleges balance their budgets. That’s a big value-add for American students, as they benefit from the higher-quality faculty and better student experience supported partly by foreign student tuition payments.
The downstream benefits are also significant. Roughly half of new H-1B visa recipients previously held student visas, which is unsurprising given that many visa holders are studying in advanced STEM and/or business fields for which there are not nearly enough Americans to meet industry demands. A robust student visa system also allows a projection of soft power, bringing the world’s top students to our shores to experience our way of life, disposing them positively toward the U.S. and its citizens, whether they remain or return home. Some stay via green cards, and many become citizens, starting businesses at higher rates and committing fewer crimes than native-born citizens.
The downsides of the student visa program are few and relatively minor. Fewer than 3% overstay their student visas; that’s a significant number, but one that can be lowered with better enforcement. In the wake of recent campus unrest, concerns exist about admitting international students who want to agitate more than learn, but the State Department’s student visa process is already quite selective; the rejection rate varies widely by country but has increased from 23% in 2014 to 41% in 2024, and the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of student visa applications is likely to drive the rejection rate even higher. The most common reason for rejection is a lack of evidence that the applicant intends to return home after completing their studies.
However, there is one area for improvement: Current fees for student visas appear to cover only the costs of the application and approval process. What if they were increased to support advanced learning opportunities for American students to help them compete at international levels? This added fee, say $20 per visa each year, would provide a meaningful revenue stream for K-12 advanced education, which is drastically underfunded at both the federal and state levels.
The resulting revenue may seem small, but it would greatly exceed the amount traditionally devoted to the Javits Gifted and Talented Act, the federal government’s only direct investment in K-12 gifted education. Javits grants (full disclosure: I have a Javits grant right now) fund demonstration projects that seek to expand our knowledge of how to promote advanced achievement beginning in K-12 schools.
The goal of this minor fee increase would not be to supplant international students. To the contrary, admitting more international students to the country under this scheme would generate more funds for U.S. students. However, the key point is that U.S. K-12 students would benefit, which is not the case right now.
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A larger fee increase would not be advisable, at least now. The administration’s recent crackdown on student visa holders (since rescinded) was not well-implemented, detaining many students who reportedly have only traffic infractions or no known brushes with the legal system, all without any semblance of due process. This and other recent actions are reportedly chilling foreign students’ interest in studying at American colleges. Raising the visa fees to uncompetitive levels (most peer countries have similar or lower fees) could drive away even more applicants.
But a small increase allows Congress to take a stand on the principle that providing exceptional educational opportunities to students from other countries should also directly benefit our K-12 students.
Jonathan Plucker is a professor of education at Johns Hopkins University