American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker, in testimony presented to a joint meeting of congressional subcommittees, tells why early childhood education programs should be sponsored by public education agencies rather than private day care centers. Main supporting reasons are: schools are available throughout the country; school…

In this interview, Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers of New York City, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, and vice president of the AFL/CIO, discussed such topics as the following: his participation in a meeting of labor leaders with President Ford on September 11; the potential influence…

Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), speaks about the national testing of teachers and calls for the creation of a new and better national examination for new teachers. While members of the AFT have a few differences with some of the current reform proposals, the AFT in general supports the overwhelming majority…

Two major events affecting American education as a whole are the recent Supreme Court decision on tuition tax credits and the appearance of reports that have placed education at the top of the national agenda. A third major development is the appreciation of the teacher as essential to education, an orientation that has arisen from the awareness…

The current movement for educational reform follows earlier realizations that the nation's industry and infrastructures have been neglected. President Reagan has responded inadequately to the crisis in education, and Americans will not accept Reagan administration initiatives that do not continue and expand existing successful programs, such as…

The search for solutions to the perceived failures of American education of recent years indicates that the public senses there is something wrong with the educational system. Educators must examine testing in light of the fact that schools are getting poor results in terms of student achievement and, perhaps, change their view of what tests…

The development of critical thinking skills in students is seen in this presentation as a significant and worthy objective of education, though the realization of this objective will be dependent upon many important factors. Among the factors cited here are, first, that recent major reform efforts have created no barriers to including critical…

The following topics of immediate concern to the American Federation of Teachers are discussed in terms of their current status and future plans for action: (1) federal aid to education; (2) bilingual education; (3) pensions, benefits, and retirement; (4) effective lobbying; (5) civil rights; (6) collective bargaining and union membership; (7)…

This letter to members of the American Federation of Teachers from the President of the Federation overviews the current employment situtation in education and advocates a change in educational focus from numbers of children educated to quality of education offered. The Federation position on universal and free early childhood education and day…