To combat a growing shortage of certified math and science teachers nationwide, at least one company is using videoconferencing technology to link states and school districts with prospective teachers overseas.

The program provides a quick fix for schools scrambling to fill vacant teaching slots with highly qualified candidates as required under the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act. But the nation's largest teachers union warns the practice does little to erase the high-risk, low-reward stigma that has driven many home-grown educators to work in the private sector.

"It's understandable that a lot of states are turning to this type of Band-Aid solution," said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for the National Education Association (NEA). "But it's a question of, how are [schools] going to deal with this [problem] in the long term?"

To staunch the bleeding at Calumet High School in Gary, Ind., Principal Leroy Miller turned to an unusual source to find a new science teacher when someone suddenly quit during the first week of school: India.

Miller tried to find a replacement through all the usual sources, but without luck. "It was getting difficult to find someone," he said.

The break came when Robert Beach, superintendent of the Lake Ridge school district, learned of an organization called USA Employment, which links teachers in India to jobs in American schools.

The Texas-based company invites schools that have been unable to fill teaching vacancies with highly qualified candidates to take advantage of the service, which links school administrators with prescreened educators from India who have expressed an interest in working in the United States.

The administrators conduct interviews with the candidates by phone, web camera, or videoconferencing technologies set up by the company and make their selections based on the results of these "virtual" interviews, said Jay Kumar, the company's founder. Before embarking on the interview process, clients also might choose to view several video introductions prepared by potential teachers on the company's web site.

The organization already has placed teachers in 25 schools within 15 different school districts, Kumar said. Other states that reportedly have benefited from the service include Texas and Connecticut.

The service seems to have received a warm reception in Houston. Educators there just tapped the company to help fill 50 teaching vacancies slated to begin at the end of February, Kumar said. In Houston's case, the company even arranged to fly a representative from the district to India, where the official was allowed to make his selections in person. But that is only the practice in instances where a district is looking to fill 10 or more vacancies.

For smaller requests, the service relies on its technology.

According to Kumar, the service works because technology allows principals—who normally are confined to making site-based hiring decisions—to look beyond a shrinking national talent pool and consider candidates from abroad, many of whom have more experience, more education, and are better qualified to fill the positions.