AFT-Speeches

Al Shanker advises the Democratic Party Platform Committee that education is a cornerstone of a democratic society. He further advises that the 1988 presidential platform set the following education goals: fund education reform research; increase aid to programs like Head Start, Chapter I, and Education for the Handicapped, and give priority to programs that address child health and nutrition; continue financial support for college students in the form of Pell grants, student loans, and the like; improve teacher recruitment; and invest in job training for the unemployed.

Shanker is speaking on S. 2270, Smart Start, which aims to provide equal educational opportunities and start children on the road to success early. Shanker also expresses that it needs to be federally sponsored program. This program would do that by creating pre-kindergarten classes and more access to childcare.

Al Shanker applauds the Rochester Teacher Association for its efforts to collaborate with school administration to reform education. He tells the members that they are embarking on new territory and that there are no easy answers he or anyone else can provide them. He compares it to the campaign to unionize teachers in the 1960s. Shanker also addresses whether collaborating with administration is really the role of a union. He asserts it is because the interests of its members are still in mind, and only teachers have the expertise to begin to tackle this problem.  read more »