PrintEducation statesman and teacher advocate served 23 years
as AFT president
Shanker started his union career as an organizer for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. In that capacity, he helped the union win recognition as exclusive bargaining agent for the city’s teachers. In 1964, he became the local’s president.
He held the office of AFT president for 23 years, by far the longest tenure of anyone in the 91-year history of the union. Under his leadership, the AFT was one of the fastest growing and most innovative unions in the country. Shanker’s twin passions for building a powerful teachers union and improving education made the AFT an influential voice on behalf of educators and schoolchildren—setting a tone that continues to this day.
Shanker was known for his thoughtful yet tough-minded approach to reforming schools. He constantly challenged AFT members to anticipate what lay ahead, to shape the debate, and to play a role in education policy at the local, state and national levels.
“Al Shanker was a champion not only of America’s teachers, but of America’s students,” said former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. “He was a pioneer in seeking to raise standards in our classrooms.”
Shanker was also a leader in the fight for human and civil rights—in the United States and abroad. He was instrumental in labor’s support of the 1963 March on Washington and served as treasurer of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. Shanker also served on the AFL-CIO’s international affairs committee, where he advocated for democratic unions throughout the world.
President Bill Clinton called Shanker “one of the greatest educators of the 20th century.”
National action now can significantly close the graduation gap within the next five years. That’s the conclusion reached in a recent report by the Center for American Progress and Jobs for the Future.
Congress can be a key part of the effort by making a federal commitment to partner with states, districts and schools to scale up effective strategies and school designs for keeping high school students in the classroom and achieving at high levels, stress the authors of “Addressing America’s Dropout Challenge.”
“Advances in both research and practice point to new, promising strategies,” the report observes. “Educators in urban districts ranging from New York City to Portland, Ore., are designing research-based interventions for keeping students on track, and developing new options and pathways for getting dropouts back in school and working toward a degree.”
Among the noteworthy interventions are a more intensive focus on fundamental English and math skills in the early months of the high school freshman year. “Failing a core academic course in ninth grade is one of a few highly predictive signals” that a student is at risk of not graduating, the report stresses. Evidence also supports the effectiveness of small schools that emphasize quick, personalized response to academic failure.
The report urges federal spending of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion annually over the next five to six years—money that can help speed and expand research-based intervention and innovative solutions to the dropout problem. “Through the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government has created widespread pressure to improve academic achievement. Creating incentives to improve graduation rates will require an equally strategic effort.”
The full report is available at www.americanprogress.org.
Child Labor Coalition cites striking decline in enforcement, penalties
Based on data acquired by the CLC from the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) under the Freedom of Information Act, the CLC report, Protecting Working Children in the United States: The Government’s Striking Decline in Child Labor Enforcement Activities, shows a persistent decade of decline in child labor enforcement and penalties. This includes a 31.5 percent decline in the number of child labor investigations between fiscal years 2004 and 2005, and a 20.2 percent decline in time DOL spent conducting child labor investigations during the same period.
Further, the average civil penalty assessed per violation of child labor laws in 2005 was just over $1,000—while the maximum penalty allowed under law is $11,000 per violation.
AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese serves as co-chair of the CLC, along with National Consumers League president Linda Golodner. In November, the CLC forwarded a copy of the report to the Geneva-based International Labor Organization, questioning whether the United States is in compliance with ILO Convention 182, which calls for immediate action to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The United States ratified the convention more than six years ago.
Cortese and Golodner also sent the report to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and have requested a meeting on the issue.
The report is available online at www.stopchildlabor.org.
