Albert Shanker

Albert Shanker – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 – February 22, 1997) was a powerful American educator, union leader, and public intellectual. This article explores his early life, union career, educational philosophy, controversies, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Albert “Al” Shanker was one of the most influential and controversial figures in 20th-century American education. As president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), he transformed teachers’ unions into major actors in education policy. He argued forcefully for accountability, standards, teacher professionalism, and institutional reform. But his career was also marked by clashes over race, community control, and the proper role of unions in public education. His legacy continues to provoke debate over the balance between teacher advocacy and student interests.

Early Life and Family

Albert Shanker was born on September 14, 1928 in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Morris, delivered newspapers; his mother, Mamie, worked in a sewing factory and was active in unions. He grew up in a working-class environment during the Great Depression, absorbing early lessons about labor, justice, and the value of unions.

Shanker entered public school without knowing English, but he thrived academically. He attended Stuyvesant High School where he was active in debate and intellectual life. After high school, he studied philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, graduating with honors. He then undertook graduate work in philosophy at Columbia University, completing all requirements but not finishing a dissertation.

While in graduate school, he took a position as a substitute mathematics teacher in East Harlem’s PS 179. He later taught full time math in junior high in Queens from about 1952 to 1959.

These early experiences—teaching in under-resourced schools, witnessing labor conditions, and navigating political and social pressures—influenced Shanker’s convictions about the role of teachers, unions, and school reform.

Career and Achievements

Rise in the Teachers’ Union Movement

By 1959, Shanker left full-time classroom teaching to become a union organizer for New York’s Teachers Guild, then a small affiliate of the AFT. In 1960, the Teachers Guild merged with the High School Teachers Association to form the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) for New York City.

In 1964, Shanker became president of the UFT, a role he held until 1985. During his tenure, he secured collective bargaining rights for New York teachers and negotiated contracts that improved salary, conditions, and job protections.

In 1974 Shanker was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), becoming a national figure in education and labor. He retained that office until his death in 1997.

Through these leadership roles, Shanker brought teacher unions into more direct engagement with education policy, not just labor matters.

Key Initiatives and Positions

• Strikes & Conflict: In 1967 and 1968, Shanker led teachers’ strikes in New York City that were illegal under state law; he was jailed for portions of these strikes. The 1968 strike—triggered largely by conflict over community control of schools in Ocean Hill–Brownsville—shut down much of the city’s schools for ~36 days.

• Ocean Hill–Brownsville Controversy: Perhaps the most controversial episode of his career was when a local community board dismissed white teachers working in a predominantly Black district under a decentralization scheme. Shanker opposed those dismissals, arguing for contractual protections and due process, a move that brought accusations of racial insensitivity and worsened racial tensions.

• Charter Schools: In 1988, Shanker proposed the idea of charter schools in the U.S., inspired by a German model where teacher teams had autonomy. Later, he withdrew support when he felt the charter movement was being co-opted by for-profit interests.

• Education Reform & Accountability: Over time, Shanker pushed unions to adopt standards, accountability systems, professional development, and performance-based approaches. He pressed for reforms beyond wages and benefits, advocating that unions themselves should engage in improving instruction and student outcomes.

• Public Voice & Columns: Shanker was a prolific writer, producing over 1,300 columns (often as paid ads) in The New York Times under the title “Where We Stand,” through which he clarified and defended union positions on national education debates.

• National Influence & Later Roles: He served as a visiting professor at Hunter College and Harvard. He also attempted to align or eventually unify the AFT with the National Education Association (NEA). In 1991, he was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to the Competitiveness Policy Council.

Controversies & Criticism

Shanker’s career was not without criticism:

• His role in the Ocean Hill–Brownsville conflict drew sharp criticism from civil rights leaders and Black community members, who saw his opposition as undermining community control and racial justice efforts.

• Critics accused him of being inflexible or overly union-centric, resisting radical educational reforms.

• Some of the more popular quotations attributed to him—such as “When school children start paying union dues…”—have been determined likely spurious, with no conclusive evidence he ever said them.

• His shift from being a more radical labor earlier to adopting more pragmatic and even conservative-leaning positions later invited debate about whether he compromised on principle.

Historical Milestones & Context

Shanker’s work must be understood in relation to the broader trajectories of American education, labor, and civil rights in the mid to late 20th century.

• Postwar union expansion and teacher professionalization: During the 1950s–1970s, many public-sector unions—including teachers’ unions—grew in power. Shanker played a pivotal role in bringing teachers into collective bargaining regimes in large urban districts.

• Civil rights and school desegregation: His career intersected with the fight for racial equality in U.S. schools. The Ocean Hill–Brownsville conflict, in particular, symbolized tensions between union protections and local control in racially stratified communities.

• Education reform debates of the 1980s–1990s: As national concern intensified about school performance, test scores, standards, and accountability, Shanker positioned unions not just as defenders but as participants in reform.

• Charter school movement: Shanker’s early support and later critique of charter schools situates him as a precursor to many debates in the charter vs. public school domain.

In these contexts, Shanker’s paradoxical identity—as both labor advocate and reformer—made him a central figure in the tensions between protecting teacher rights and advancing systemic improvement.

Legacy and Influence

Albert Shanker’s legacy is multifaceted, and his influence still echoes:

• Union activism and teacher voice: He dramatically raised the status and influence of teachers’ unions in policy debates.

• Education policy discourse: His insistence that unions must engage in improving instruction and outcomes pushed subsequent union leadership to be more policy-savvy rather than purely adversarial.

• Shanker Institute: In 1998, the Albert Shanker Institute was established to perpetuate his ideas—focusing on excellence in public education, unions as advocates for quality, and freedom of association in democratic societies.

• Debate legacy: His life remains a case study in the tensions inherent in public education: the conflict between local control and centralized systems, rights of teachers versus rights of students, union protections versus innovation.

• Symbolic figure: For many in the education field, Shanker is a touchstone, referenced by both admirers and critics for how to balance advocacy and accountability.

Personality and Talents

Albert Shanker combined fiery rhetorical skill with intellectual rigor. He was known for sharp, uncompromising public statements and a capacity to provoke thought. His background in philosophy sharpened his ability to frame issues abstractly, and his roots in working-class, unionist upbringing grounded him in practical concerns.

He was also a deeply political operator—adept at coalition building, negotiation, and media engagement (e.g., placing op-ed ads). Despite his confrontational public stance, he was respected by many for his consistency, clarity, and passion.

Famous Quotes of Albert Shanker

Below are several quotations widely attributed to Shanker—though in some cases their authenticity is disputed. Use with caution and verification:

“As long as there are no consequences if kids or adults don’t perform, as long as the discussion is not about education and student outcomes, then we’re playing a game as to who has the power.”
“I would rather die having spoken in my way, than live having spoken in yours.”
“There is no more reason to pay for private education than there is to pay for a private swimming pool for those who do not use public facilities.”
“School disruption comes from those children who have given up hope.”
“The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unions protest the loudest.”
“As teachers, we must constantly try to improve schools and we must keep working at changing and experimenting and trying until we have developed ways of reaching every child.”
[Disputed] “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” — many sources attribute this to Shanker, but the Albert Shanker Institute and other scholars have cast doubt on its authenticity.

One must be cautious: some widely circulated Shanker quotes appear to have been paraphrased, misattributed, or invented.

Lessons from Albert Shanker

From the life and work of Albert Shanker, we can extract several enduring lessons for educators, unionists, and reformers:

1. Advocacy must include accountability. Shanker believed unions should not merely defend teachers, but participate in raising standards.

2. Ideals and pragmatism must coexist. His career shows the friction—and necessary negotiation—between principled positions and political realities.

3. Unions must evolve. He challenged labor organizations to be more than resistance bodies—to engage in innovation, policy design, and continuous improvement.

4. Context matters. The racial, social, and economic context of schools cannot be ignored; decisions in education must attend to equity and justice.

5. Public communication is vital. Shanker’s prolific writings and willingness to frame debates made union voices more visible in national discourse.

6. The paradox of reform from inside. He tried to challenge the status quo while operating within it, showing that transformative change often requires internal critique.

Conclusion

Albert Shanker was not a simple hero or villain—he was a force of contradictions, tension, and ambition. He pushed teacher unions from defensive posture into the demanding arena of education reform. He advanced standards, accountability, and teacher professionalism while also defending teacher rights. His battles over race, decentralization, and union scope still resonate in ongoing debates over public schooling in America.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with his positions, Shanker’s life reminds us of the complexity of education reform: the delicate balance among equity, quality, autonomy, and collective bargaining. His persistent challenge to educators is to act both as stewards of their profession and as advocates for students.