Five years ago, the AFT's beloved and longest-serving president, Albert Shanker, lost his valiant struggle with cancer. His death on Feb. 22, 1997, was a devastating blow.

As the AFT prepared for a memorial gathering that April, the union and his family received an outpouring of tributes and condolences that reflected Shanker's remarkable life and his influence on people--from U.S. presidents to union members on a picket line. He was, and still is, greatly missed.

Under his leadership, the AFT became one of the fastest-growing and most innovative unions in America. A pioneer in collective bargaining for teachers, Al Shanker also was one of the country's most influential voices on education reform, a leader for human and civil rights in the United States and abroad, and a relentless defender of democracy and freedom.

Through his speeches, his weekly New York Times columns, and his work with business leaders, policymakers and union leaders, Shanker had a knack for turning conventional wisdom on its head--and making it perfectly sensible.

"Al Shanker was a teacher's teacher--brilliant, logical, caring and deeply committed," said Sandra Feldman, then president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City who later was elected to succeed Shanker as the AFT president. "He could be passionate about his beliefs, yet at the same time had the rare ability to rethink issues and come up with fresh approaches as times changed."

Shanker's contributions to public policy, to human rights and the labor movement were immeasurable. His ideas seem as potent and relevant today as they were during his 23 years as AFT president.

Now, readers who never met Shanker, heard him speak or read his articles can get to know him through archived material on several Web sites. They include:

• The Albert Shanker Institute, www.ashankerinst.org, which includes an area on the history of Albert Shanker. Posted on the site are articles from special issues of American Teacher and American Educator that focused on his life and ideas.

• The Web site of the UFT, www.uft.org, includes several archived articles about Shanker. Click on "About the UFT" and then "History of UFT" or "Albert Shanker."

• Shanker's New York Times columns from 1993 are archived at AFT Online, www.aft.org. Click on "President's Column: Where We Stand" and then "Previous Columns."

The budget surpluses and positive gains for workers in states are quickly disappearing and setting the stage for some tough political fights ahead for AFT affiliates.

Ed Muir, senior associate in the AFT's research and information services department, told AFT executive council members earlier this year that the good times brought by a roaring stock market, capital gains, consumer confidence and Medicaid cost containment are quickly disappearing. Forty-five states now have shrinking revenues, and states nationwide face current budget shortfalls totaling $15 billion, he said--a figure that will get worse next year.

The AFT's own membership has been hurt by layoffs, as well as deferred raises, deferred or adjusted payments to pension funds and a push to shift more healthcare costs to employees, Muir said. Some states are quickly tapping into their reserves, and others are proposing tax increases.

Muir outlined efforts both in state legislatures and through state ballot initiatives to secure tuition tax credits, vouchers and tax credits for private "scholarship" programs, as well as challenges to collective bargaining and dues deduction, noting that all this makes a tough political environment for the AFT (see story at top left).

On the positive side, AFT-endorsed candidates in New Jersey and Virginia won gubernatorial races, Muir pointed out, and the union had other victories in state legislatures. Healthcare affiliates have won bans on mandatory overtime for nurses in New Jersey and Oregon.

But as budgets get tighter, the progress made on class size, after-school programs, early childhood education and more equitable financing of schools may be halted, he warned.

Public employees are the hardest hit by the budget cuts for now, including efforts toward privatization, an attack on dues deduction in Colorado, and moves to hold off pay increases.

Funding is a major problem in higher education, as well. Oregon faces cuts of 10 percent in higher education and 8 percent in community colleges, Muir noted.

For more information, see the AFT's Revenue and Taxation Task Force report on state budget crises online at www.aft.org/research/reports/fpe/taxtaskforce.pdf.

A New York state school district with a strong AFT local teachers union recently became one of the first two districts in the country to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The awards, named for the former secretary of commerce, were established in 1987 to recognize businesses for high quality and performance. They were expanded in 1999 to include healthcare and education, but 2001 marked the first time that any school districts were honored.

Members of the local union--the Pearl River Teachers Association--were involved with the planning and application process for the award, says local president Bill Anton. But more important, he adds, his members "are doing the work that the district got credit for."

Anton says the district administration emphasizes using data to drive its programs. That means looking at test scores and other indicators, analyzing how students are doing and what needs to be improved, and looking at how the district compares with others in the state. These data show some impressive results in Pearl River, which has about 300 employees and nearly 2,500 students. For example, the number of students earning a Regents diploma (which signifies more rigorous coursework than a regular diploma) rose from 63 percent in 1996 to 86 percent in 2001. In addition, the percent of students scoring a "3" or better on Advanced Placement tests increased from 34 percent to 76 percent over the past four years while the overall number of students taking the tests also increased substantially.

Satisfaction rates on surveys of staff, parents and students are also on the rise, increasing to 96 percent for faculty in 2001. The union is in the second year of a five-year contract, and Anton reports no significant labor problems. Teachers are involved in initiatives at all levels--from district and school leadership teams to professional development committees to interviewing prospective new hires--including the superintendent. "We're real proud of the way we do things," he says.

Although the Baldrige award carries prestige in the business world, it's so new in education that Anton says even teachers in a neighboring district didn't know what he was talking about when he mentioned Pearl River's recognition at a meeting. Some of that might change after the award recognition ceremony.

A 50-person delegation from Pearl River was scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., in March for a ceremony with President Bush.

For other school districts that might be interested in applying for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, lots more information--including the detailed selection process and application deadlines--is available at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Web site, www.quality.nist.gov/index.html.

The out-of-pocket costs that teachers pay for classroom materials and supplies may be sharply higher than was believed just two years ago. Teachers paid an average of $589 a year for school supplies and instructional materials, according to a 2001 survey by the National School Supply and Equipment Association (NSSEA). That's substantially more than the $448 the association estimated teachers had paid on average for these items in 1998-99.

Part of the increase may reflect new methodology used in the survey, explains NSSEA spokesperson Adrian Watts. The first survey was based on interviews with educators making purchases at parent/teacher stores, she says. The second was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 276 educators, Watts explains. The store exit interviews used in the first survey might have skewed data toward particular geographic regions.

More than 56 percent of teachers reported using their own cash for instructional materials compared to 19 percent who identified parent-teacher associations as a source of funds. The out-of-pocket costs for school supplies were even higher. Almost 75 percent of teachers tapped their own checkbooks for these materials.

Teachers as a group spend more than $1.3 billion of their personal funds on classroom materials per year--and that's based on the more conservative $437 per-teacher average of two years ago.

Beginning in 2004, teachers would be able to claim a federal tax deduction of up to $400 for out-of-pocket expenses under a proposal floated recently by President Bush.