Ballot Box: Shanker for Clinton; Nothing formal; Remap blues

Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, last week used his weekly paid newspaper column to urge New Yorkers to vote for Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas in the Empire State's Democratic Presidential primary.

Mr. Shanker argued that a "protest'' vote would be a vote for President Bush and "the status quo,'' and that the flat tax proposed by Mr. Clinton's chief rival, former Gov. Jerry Brown of California, would be disastrous for public-school budgets.

The union president also praised Mr. Clinton's work on the national education goals, contending that he led the governors in "forc[ing] President Bush to abandon his photo-op approach to the education summit and negotiate real...