AFT-Speeches

Shanker's addresses calls for the need of union strength in higher education. He states that the survival of public higher education is primarily a political issue. It depends on what legislators do. He says it also depends on appropriations, tax structures and financial decisions. Survival is a matter of public policy. He defends this stance throughout the speech.

Shanker address begins by going through what the federation has experienced in the previous decades. He then addresses the new decline in public education they will be seeing five years in the future. He discusses the energy crisis in America, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. He also discusses bringing health care workers in to the federation. At the end of the speech he talks about the successes of AFT in that previous year and how they will continue to succeed in the future.

Excerpts from an interview with Al Shanker are reproduced here. He comments on a variety of educational issues including school vouchers, tuition tax credits, employment offices that indirectly encourage high school drop-outs, teachers' unions, the creation of a separate federal Department of Education, and privatization of education.