School & District Management

Death of Feldman, AFT’s Former President, Mourned

By Bess Keller — September 27, 2005 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Labor leaders, government officials, and educators last week mourned the death of Sandra Feldman, who headed the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union until cancer forced her into retirement in 2004. She died Sept. 18 at the age of 65.

BRIC ARCHIVE

The former president of the American Federation of Teachers led the 1.3 million-member union for seven years, as it played an influential role in shaping the federal No Child Left Behind Act and grew by thousands of teachers, teachers’ aides, and health-care and government workers. She succeeded the legendary Albert F. Shanker, whom she had also followed as the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, which is the nation’s largest local teachers’ union.

Ms. Feldman was the president of the city union for 11 years before she was elected to lead the national union in May 1997—the first woman to hold the AFT’s top post since 1930. She took over as dissatisfaction with urban schools was intensifying, and she was a staunch champion of educational equality for the poor and minority children who are heavily enrolled in those schools.

“Sandy’s death is a great loss for the AFT personally and professionally and for the children of our nation,” AFT President Edward J. McElroy said in a statement. “Presidents, members of Congress, educators, and business leaders relied on her expertise and ideas to help forge their own opinions about how to help those who needed it most.”

Early-Childhood Advocate

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who consulted with Ms. Feldman on the No Child Left Behind Act he helped craft with the Bush administration in 2001, praised her in a statement as “one of the greatest and most effective champions the nation has ever had for equal educational opportunity for all children.”

A native of Brooklyn, Ms. Feldman grew up in straitened circumstances. During her college years she was drawn into the civil rights movement.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, she taught 2nd and 3rd grade in a New York City public school. After three years at Public School 34, during which she led the faculty in organizing a chapter of the United Federation of Teachers, she took a job as a field representative for the union.

Ms. Feldman was considered an expert on urban education and also pushed hard for more and better early-childhood education, which she believed would help children succeed in school.

“If she had her druthers, this nation would have provided kids some type of educational experience all the way down to age 3,” said Nat LaCour, the secretary-treasurer of the AFT.

As a start, she proposed a program called Kindergarten-Plus that would provide learning opportunities for academically at-risk children in the summers before and after they attend kindergarten. New Mexico has adopted the program, and it is under consideration in several other states. (“Ahead of Their Class,” Aug. 31, 2005)

Ms. Feldman also worked to merge the AFT with the now 2.7-million member National Education Association. The smaller union approved the change, but the merger failed at the NEA’s national convention in 1998, despite the support of the larger organization’s national leaders.

Bob Chase, who served as the president of the NEA from 1996 to 2002, said he and Ms. Feldman cemented a friendship during that time and could disagree without ill will.

“She was an incredibly passionate person,” especially about the well-being of children, “which showed itself on a day-to-day basis,” Mr. Chase said.

In addition to leading the AFT, Ms. Feldman served as a vice president of Education International, a worldwide umbrella group of teachers’ unions, and as a member of the executive committee of the AFL-CIO.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the September 28, 2005 edition of Education Week as Death of Feldman, AFT’s Former President, Mourned

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management After a Lesson on Michelangelo's David, a Florida Principal Loses Her Job
Parents complained that images of the famous sculpture were "pornographic" and that they weren't notified of the lesson in advance.
Michelangelo's marble statue of "David", is seen in Florence's Galleria dell' Accademia on May 24, 2004.
Michelangelo's marble statue of "David" is displayed in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence, Italy.
Fabrizio Giovannozzi/AP
School & District Management A New Federal Plan Could Make Free School Meals a Reality for More Students
The plan will mostly benefit districts in states where lawmakers have enacted universal free school meal policies.
5 min read
Young boy in a school lunchroom cafeteria line and choosing a slice of pizza to put on his tray which includes an apple.
SDI Productions/Getty
School & District Management Did Principal Turnover Increase During the Pandemic? Here's What We Know
The data are still scant, but what’s emerging shows a drop in 2020-21 and an increase the following year.
6 min read
Black and white male and female figures walking in different directions on a light blue textured background. One male figure is walking out of an open door.
Anton Vierietin/Getty
School & District Management MAP: Where School Employees Can and Can't Strike
See which states do and don't allow public school employees to go on strike.
2 min read
Amy Chapman and her daughter, first grader Corinne Anderson, pose for a photo while they support teachers on strike outside Whetstone High School in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022.
Amy Chapman and her daughter, 1st grader Corinne Anderson, show support for teachers on strike outside Whetstone High School in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 24, 2022.
Samantha Hendrickson/AP