Teachers Union Elects N.Y. Chief to Succeed Shanker

The American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, got its first new president in 23 years Tuesday--Sandra Feldman, the longtime head of the New York City teachers union.

Feldman, 57, will fill out the term of Albert Shanker, the visionary unionist-turned-reformer whose death from cancer in February left a void at the top of the 900,000-member organization.

Elected by the American Federation of Teachers’ 38-member executive council, Feldman was already serving as an AFT vice president and has been president of the United Federation of Teachers, the New York local, since 1986. She said Tuesday that she will continue to head the New York union.

A former third grade teacher and native of Brooklyn, Feldman assumes the leadership of the national union at a time when teachers unions and public education are under sharp attack. Conservatives have portrayed both the AFT and its longtime rival, the 2.2-million member National Education Assn., as obstacles to school reform, more focused on preserving teachers’ rights than improving the quality of public education.

But union analysts described Feldman as an activist for school reform. “She has taken some very bold stances,” said Ann Lieberman, an education professor and expert on teachers unions at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In New York City, Feldman has helped develop strategies to give teachers a larger role in making hiring decisions at the school level and to redesign teacher evaluation procedures.

She also has supported a sweeping effort to make public education in New York more effective by making schools smaller and easing union rules governing teacher seniority and transfer.

But Feldman, like her predecessor Shanker, opposes vouchers to pay for private schooling and efforts to privatize the management of public schools. She says she has many reservations about the growing charter school movement, which is designed to raise educational achievement by giving local schools the power to make their own budgetary, hiring and curriculum decisions.

Feldman said Tuesday that her election was “bittersweet,” coming as a result of Shanker’s death. Shanker had been her mentor, preceding her as president of the New York local as well.

“But we’re taking his agenda and moving it to the next stage,” she said, referring to Shanker’s push for higher academic standards and tougher classroom discipline.

She also promised to initiate programs to help the youngest children gain the skills they need to succeed in school.

Feldman assumes the top union post at a critical time for both national teacher unions. The NEA and the AFT have been in merger talks for the past two years. If they succeed, the new organization would be the largest labor union in the country.

Her election was welcomed by many Los Angeles-area teacher leaders. “I was hoping she would be the one,” said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, which is affiliated with both the NEA and the AFT.