CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – U.S. public schools are working with recruitment companies to take in foreign students as a means of boosting district revenues and diversifying local schools.

The trend builds on a similar situation at American Universities, though the high schools and recruitment companies are struggling to make the arrangement work because of cultural conflicts between the predominantly Chinese students and their host families and schools, the Boston Globe reports.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

“In Massachusetts, 447 international students enrolled in public schools in 2015, compared to 5,517 in private schools, according to the Department of Homeland Security. (In 2010, there were just 97 such students in public schools),” the news site reports.

“Companies such as Cambridge Institute (of International Education) are focusing on Massachusetts because the state is known for its high-performing public high schools and top universities. Two years ago, the company hired two former local superintendents to pitch its services to schools from North Andover to Scituate. So far, 23 districts have signed up with the firm and at least an additional 18 work with other recruiting companies.”

Districts that sign up with student recruiters like Cambridge Institute generally receive between $9,200 and $16,700 per student, or about the same as local education funding per student. Foreign families that send their children through Cambridge Institute pay a flat fee of between $29,543 and $39,500, which includes $5,000 to $10,000 per year that goes to their host family in the U.S. for food and lodging, according to the Globe.

Local school districts sign contracts with recruiting companies which typically include a target number of international students, but the target number is a goal, and the companies often deliver fewer.

“For us, it seemed like a good thing,” Swansea superintendent Robert Monteiro told the Globe. “Swansea’s a small town – not a lot of diversity.”

Monteiro signed a contract with Cambridge in 2014 with a goal of five to 10 students per year, but only the company has only managed to send one student per year.

“It’s a little bit disappointing when they want you to do a lot of work on this end and then you’re only getting one student,” he said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Dudley-Charlton principal Mary Pierangeli is also disappointed after she was cleared to accept five students each year about two years ago, yet still has not received a single student.

“I expressed my displeasure with their inability to provide us students,” she told the Globe. “They assured me that this would be a better year.”

Other school officials, like Holliston superintendent Bradford Jackson, said some foreign students who do show up struggle with English but are still required to pass U.S. history as well as standardized math, English and science tests to graduate.

“I will not weaken the worth of a Holliston High School diploma,” Jackson said.

The move to install foreign students in America’s public schools comes after years of the same in private schools and U.S. universities, though the government limits student stays at public high schools to one year of study.

In public schools, there’s no direct government oversight of the process, and schools can spend the new revenue on whatever they want.

But recruiting companies continue to struggle with cultural stereotypes from foreign families, mostly Chinese, who seem to prefer their children stay with white families.

“I would constantly hear, ‘Oh, that family’s black,” said former Cambridge Institute worker Rayshauna Gray, who is black.

Cambridge Institute co-owner Christine Lin acknowledged the companies clients can be racist, and said ‘it’s going to take time for us to educate them, to say ‘Hey, America is like this.’”

The company has also faced repeated complaints to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, including allegations of inappropriate conduct by employees, hackers stealing health and financial data from the company despite warnings of vulnerability, and other issues.

Lin countered that the company has hired new leadership, a consultant to fix the data breech, and is working to improve its services.

“I do admit that there’s always room to improve,” Lin told the Globe. “Especially when we are growing fast and we’re moving mountains, there’s a lot of different perspectives.”