AFT-Speeches

Al Shanker testifies before the Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education on the reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Shanker supports the law''s reauthorization, but he has many suggestions for how it could be improved. His ideas address a variety of topics including financial support for disadvantaged students; bilingual education; and research funding. He also urges lawmakers to enact revisions that acknowledge the existence of collective bargaining agreements so that the law is no longer in conflict with existing labor contracts.

Al Shanker offers his opinion on the proposed creation of a separate, cabinet-level Department of Education. Shanker asserts that such a Department would not really help; rather he argues that it will create too much governmental intrusion into educational administration, a matter which had been decided by individual states, localities, universities, and school systems. Additionally he states that the programs of the current Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) are so interrelated that splitting them would have negative consequences.  read more »

In this testimony, Al Shanker discusses Titles I and VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. For Title I, he recommends funding for basic skills training and a literacy initiative. For Title VII, he asserts that the bilingual education program should remain but urges that its transitional nature be enforced so that the program is used to move non-English-speaking students into English-speaking classrooms. Shanker also calls for more funding to train teachers in bilingual education settings. Finally, Shanker discusses the flaws in desegregation programs.

Shanker is a part of a panel with John Ryor to discuss teacher testing. Shanker's statements reflect what he sees as the fall of respect for the teacher and to bring respect back to the profession a national teacher test should instituted like doctors and lawyers do to practice their profession. John Ryor's statement starts on page 1-121 and question were asked starting on page 2-137

Shanker addresses the Senate committee on the issue of committee bill S. 991, which calls to create a separate cabinet level Department of Education. Shanker is opposed to this separate department and states that separate committees have been created in the past and have contributed nothing. Shanker states that a separate department may give a negative hew to the Department of Education; he also says that it may narrow the public’s perspective of what the Department of Education can do. Shanker suggests that the Department of Education will be stronger if left within the realms of HEW (Health Education and Welfare Administration).