AFT-Speeches

These are comments from Shanker's speech to the Little Rock Economic Club, a speech which was given in front of Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore. Shanker agrees with the educational changes that Gov. Clinton was speaking of in his campaign for President of the United States, but said that citizens need to realize the need for change before they will want it.

In this brief speech, Al Shanker discusses with then President-Elect Bill Clinton and Vice President-Elect Al Gore some of the challenges facing American education. He states that standards have been lowered to the point that high school diplomas are virtually meaningless. He compares the U.S. to other countries that have higher standards and also treat other problems differently. He notes that many European countries have early childhood education programs, and he advocates for a national day care program in the U.S.  read more »

Kathy Cronkite's 1994 book On the Edge of Darkness interviews a number of celebrities about their experiences with clinical depression. Al Shanker was one of the interviewees, and this document reproduces excerpts from the book that relate Shanker's experiences. He talks about his childhood and the social difficulties he faced growing up.

In this speech, Shanker is addressing how to get America out of poverty by making the education system better.