Albert Shanker’s Liberal Legacy

Best known as a union organizer, Albert Shanker also represents a variant of liberalism that, although less prominent today than it once was, has not lost its relevance. In Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2007), Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation not only tells the story of the American Federation of Teachers’s rise, but also explores the enduring significance of Shanker’s political stance.

On October 16, Kahlenberg was joined by Brookings senior fellow E.J. Dionne, Jr.; columnist David Brooks from The New York Times; and Rachelle Horowitz of the American Federation of Teachers in a discussion of Shanker’s legacy. The event is the eighth in the “Governing Ideas” series, sponsored by Governance Studies at Brookings and moderated by senior fellow William Galston.