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37-757: The Institute was founded in 1998 and is named for Albert Shanker , the late president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). It is funded in part by the AFT and in part by an endowment, and is housed at the AFT headquarters in Washington, D.C. ASI has a five-member staff, and is led by an independent Board of Directors composed of educators, business representatives, labor leaders, academics, and public policy analysts. The Board also includes AFT president Randi Weingarten (who also serves as ASI's president) and AFT secretary-treasurer Fedrick Ingram (who

74-446: A community school program, known as community control , where school districts had the power to hire, fire, and approve budgets at the local level. The pilot program was designed to fight school segregation and racial inequity in school policies, teacher hiring, and Black and Puerto Rican student outcomes. When the majority Black and Puerto Rican school board fired 14 white union teachers for underperformance, Shanker led UFT teachers in

111-630: A full-time role at Junior High School 126 in the Astoria section of Queens from 1953 to 1959. He began his tenure as a union organizer in 1959 to help organize the Teacher's Guild, a New York City affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers that was founded by John Dewey in 1917. Eventually, the Teacher's Guild merged with New York City's High School Teacher's Association to form the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in 1960. During

148-632: A negative, but the evidence suggests that the quote didn’t come from Shanker and that someone with an agenda probably twisted his words." [2] Shanker's biographer, Richard Kahlenberg , found no record of Shanker's ever saying this and does not believe he ever did. Notes United Federation of Teachers The United Federation of Teachers ( UFT ) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools . As of 2005 , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and nearly 30,000 paraprofessional educators in

185-485: A new, privately run Medicare Advantage plan . Large numbers of UFT retirees have complained about the proposed plan. Retired UFT members and other New York City retirees have protested that the new plan falls short and organized opposition to the new plan. In 2024, the UFT sued to block congestion pricing in lower Manhattan . The union argued that congestion pricing would worsen pollution and harm children. In May 2011,

222-556: A news conference to thank the NAACP for fighting on behalf of all kids and to press for fairness and equity. The New York City Parents Union filed its own lawsuit in June 2011 to stop co-locations and school closings, stating, “Despite inconsistent and uncertain results, the DOE continues to push public school parents into a privately managed school system where many charters perform worse than

259-499: A position he held until 1985. In 1967 and again in 1968, he served jail sentences for leading illegal teachers' strikes. The New York City teachers' strike of 1968 closed down almost all New York City schools for 36 days. Perhaps Shanker is best known for opposing community-control leaders in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district of New York City, which led to the 1968 strike after white teachers were dismissed from

296-503: A rift between African-Americans and the Jewish communities, two groups that were previously viewed as allied. The two sides threw accusations of racism and anti-Semitism at each other. Following the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis , some 14,000 teachers were laid off and class size soared. Another strike addressed some of these complaints and gave long-serving teachers longevity benefits. The Unity Caucus, formed in 1962, predominates in

333-431: A strike to oppose community control. When the UFT proposed Lesson Plans on African-American History , “Shanker personally intervened and cut out radical ideas.” His intervention included removal of two chapters on Malcolm X and Fredrick Douglass’s words, “power concedes nothing without a demand.” In 1975, the UFT authorized a five-day strike, leading to allegedly saving New York City from bankruptcy after Shanker asked

370-502: A voluntary incentive program for high-achieving schools with high-needs populations. The union does not support a proposed reform of the seniority-based LIFO (education) law. In July 2007, Weingarten collaborated with Mayor Bloomberg in supporting a modified merit pay program with bonuses to schools and additional bonuses targeted for specific teachers. The UFT strongly supports the reduction of class sizes for all subjects and grade levels in New York City public schools. The UFT, under

407-596: A young boy, with an interest in philosophy. His idols were Franklin D. Roosevelt , Clarence Darrow , civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and American philosopher Sidney Hook . In 1946, Shanker graduated from Stuyvesant High School , where he was the head of the debate team. Thereafter, he majored in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He joined the Congress of Racial Equality . Shanker picketed segregated movie theaters and restaurants and

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444-671: Is also ASI's secretary-treasurer). Mary Cathryn Ricker is the Institute's current Executive Director. Previous Executive Directors were Leo Casey and Eugenia Kemble. In September 2013, the Shanker Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition announced they were jointly sponsoring a new Bayard Rustin Fellowship. The fellowship will be hosted by the Shanker Institute, and will encourage

481-609: The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America . The Shanker family's deeply held political views were staunchly pro-union, following the socialism of Norman Thomas and including ardent support of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal . The experience of watching his mother work 70-hour weeks convinced Shanker from an early age that there was a need for societal changes. Shanker read several newspapers daily as

518-525: The Teachers Union , founded in 1916, and the Teachers Guild , founded in 1935, failed to gather widespread enrollment or support. Many of the early leaders were pacifists or socialists and so frequently met with clashes against more right-leaning newspapers and organizations of the time, as red-baiting was fairly common. The ethnically and ideologically diverse teachers associations of

555-490: The decentralization plan that was being put in place to give more neighborhoods community control. The Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike focused on the Ocean Hill -Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn but, ironically, the schools in that area were among the few that were open in the entire city. The Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis is often described as a turning point in the history of unionism and of civil rights, as it created

592-412: The 1960s, Shanker received national attention and considerable criticism for his aggressive union leadership and skillful negotiation of salary increases for New York City teachers. He left his teaching job to become a full-time union organizer. He felt that a teachers' union would be more effective if it were united with a common set of goals. In 1964, Shanker succeeded Charles Cogen as the UFT president,

629-745: The Teachers' Retirement System to invest $ 150 million in municipal bonds. On September 21, 1981, Shanker had dinner with Leon B. Applewhaite, a personal friend and one of the three members of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). Applewhaite was involved in deciding whether to uphold the decertification of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for the strike they had called in August of that year. During

666-569: The UFT was chosen as the collective bargaining organization for all city teachers in December 1961. Albert Shanker , a controversial but successful organizer was president of the UFT from 1964 until 1984. He held an overlapping tenure as president of the national American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to his death in 1997. In 1968, the UFT went on strike and shut down the school system in May and then again from September to November to protest

703-699: The UFT, Randi Weingarten , resigned in 2009 to lead the American Federation of Teachers . She has clashed repeatedly with the mayors of the city; in particular with former mayor Rudy Giuliani and mayor Michael Bloomberg . Bloomberg made student promotion to third , sixth and eighth grade contingent upon performance on standardized tests , which the UFT and the New York Board of Regents have criticized as being flawed. The UFT opposes merit pay for teachers, opting for seniority -based pay, but joined in November 2007, with Mayor Bloomberg in agreeing to

740-589: The UFT, along with the NAACP and others, filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education to stop school closings and the co-location of schools. In the lawsuit, the union charged that the Department of Education was improperly closing schools. The lawsuit also asked the court to stop school co-locations. Before a court hearing on the suit in June 2011, parent groups held

777-416: The advocacy, policy development, and research in three areas: This article related to a non-profit organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Albert Shanker Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 – February 22, 1997) was president of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1985 and president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1974 to 1997. Shanker

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814-717: The charter school idea when he realized that for-profit organizations saw it as a business opportunity and were advancing an agenda of school privatization. Indeed, the charter schools that were finally established in the U.S. were different from Shanker's vision. "On average, charter schools are even more racially and economically segregated than traditional public schools," according to an opinion piece in The New York Times explaining Shanker's views. Although Shanker marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., later in his career Shanker moved politically to

851-441: The city made the creation of a single organized body difficult, with each association continuing to vie for its own priorities irrespective of the others. The UFT was created on March 16, 1960, and grew rapidly. On November 7, 1960, the union organized a major strike. The strike largely failed in its main objectives but obtained some concessions, as well as bringing much popular attention to the union. After much further negotiation,

888-471: The dinner, Shanker urged Applewhaite not to decertify the union , an action which plainly violated the prohibition on the ex parte contact contained in the federal Administrative Procedure Act . Although the contact was not ultimately found to have legal consequences, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals criticized Shanker's behavior in their review of the FLRA's decision. (See 685 F.2d 547.) In 1988, Shanker

925-450: The leadership of presidents Weingarten and Mulgrew, has collaborated with tenets of the education reform movement, such as support for value-added modeling for teacher evaluation . In 2023, the UFT sued New York City for school cuts. In 2023, the UFT negotiated with the City for a plan that would move UFT retirees and other retired New York City workers from traditional Medicare into

962-604: The original Competitiveness Policy Council . Shanker died of bladder cancer and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 by U.S. President Bill Clinton . The quote, "When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children," is sometimes erroneously attributed to Shanker, as was done by Joel Klein in 2011 and Mitt Romney in 2012, among others in conservative political circles. [1] The Albert Shanker Institute attempted to find

999-507: The public schools while failing to serve their fair share of students with special needs and English Language Learners.” On Friday, June 24, 2011, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, along with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced that an agreement had been reached to prevent the layoff of 4,100 New York City teachers. The agreement came six months after Mayor Bloomberg had warned 21,000 layoffs were possible. The union had opposed all layoffs with

1036-548: The right. He came out in proud support of the Vietnam War. Shanker was a visiting professor at Hunter College and Harvard University during the 1980s. He continued to work toward organizing teachers throughout his life and attempted to bridge the AFT with the National Education Association , which he never saw happen. In 1991, U.S. President George H. W. Bush appointed him as a member of

1073-522: The school district by the recently appointed black administrator. For more than a decade, Shanker wrote more than 1,300 columns in The New York Times (which appeared as paid advertisements) and essays in other publications. Accompanied by a small photograph of Shanker, the Times columns, titled "Where We Stand", sought to clarify the union's position on matters of public interest. Shanker

1110-523: The source of this quote, and concluded that "we cannot demonstrate conclusively that Albert Shanker never made this particular statement... but, we believe the quote is fiction." The first appearance, which those at the Institute could find, was in the Meridian Star newspaper, in an editorial piece dated August 13, 1985, but no source is included in the article. Similarly, Washington Post fact-checkers concluded that "it’s virtually impossible to prove

1147-410: The union's membership are considered retirees, with eligibility to vote in the union. UFT contracts also cover some non-members, known as agency fee payers, which, since 2005, have numbered comparatively about 1% of the size of the union's membership. As of 2013, this accounts for 59,444 retirees and 2,675 non-members paying agency fees, compared to 124,145 "active" members. The previous president of

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1184-652: The union, as well as about 54,000 retired members. In October 2007, 28,280 home day care providers voted to join the union. It is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers , the AFL–CIO and the Central Labor Council . It is also the largest member of New York State United Teachers , which is affiliated with the National Educational Association and Education International . Two previous unions of New York schoolteachers,

1221-696: The union, holding nearly every leadership position. New Action formed in the 1980s as an opposition caucus but, since 2003, it has cross-endorsed Unity candidates. The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) is a relatively new caucus, formed in 2012. The MORE Caucus has been accused of engaging in and encouraging antisemitism in the NYC public schools. In the spring of 2013, UFT election campaign, president Michael Mulgrew (Unity) refused repeated requests to debate his opponent, Julie Cavanagh (MORE). According to UFT's Department of Labor records since 2005, when membership classifications were first reported, about 32% of

1258-602: Was a key figure in building the United Federation of Teachers and was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in 1974. He was re-elected every two years until his death. Shanker's organizing efforts for educators cannot be separated from the legacy of his actions related to racial equity and anti-Blackness. Shanker is remembered for his actions during the Ocean Hill–Brownsville crisis . In 1968, Black and Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn were piloting

1295-677: Was a member of the Young People's Socialist League and chairman of the Socialist Study Club. In 1949, he graduated with honors and began graduate studies at Columbia University , where he ultimately attained all but dissertation status. In order to earn money while writing his dissertation, Shanker became a substitute mathematics teacher at Public School 179 in East Harlem , a historically working class neighborhood near Columbia's campus. He later taught mathematics in

1332-521: Was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. As a toddler, his family moved to the Long Island City district in Queens . His parents, Mamie and Morris Shanker, were immigrants from Poland. Both were union members; his father was a union newspaper deliveryman, and his mother, who operated a sewing-machine in a knitting factory, was a member of

1369-552: Was the first to propose charter schools in the U.S. He was inspired by a visit to a public school in Cologne, Germany, in which teams of teachers had considerable control over how the school was run, and about what and how to teach. They stayed with each class of students for six years. The schools were integrated by ethnic and economic origins, and were originally intended to focus on the neediest students, drop-outs and those most likely to drop out soon. In 1993, Shanker turned against

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