Prior to 1974, the union rarely had an opportunity to present positions on education policy behind closed doors in Washington. At meetings of policy makers and education groups, and in the media, the AFT often was viewed as a gang of quick-to-strike hotheads.

At first glance, the new AFT president appeared to reinforce that sentiment. As president of the United Federation of Teachers, Shanker had been jailed twice for calling teachers’ strikes. A year before taking office as national president, Shanker’s brand of militant unionism was spoofed in Woody Allen’s futuristic comedy "Sleeper," in which a maniac named Albert Shanker destroys civilization after obtaining a nuclear warhead. AFT information services director Paula O’Connor remembered seeing the movie during its first run in Washington, D.C. Because the Shanker reference was such an "inside" joke for New York City residents, only three people in the entire theater laughed. Outside the trade union movement and New York, Shanker either was an unknown or he was labeled a reckless leader who would destroy public education in a narrow pursuit of a union agenda.

But it didn’t take long for public leaders and policy makers to realize the label didn’t fit. In meetings, conferences and phone calls, Shanker never failed to impress with his keen intellect—particularly his ability to offer a comment or remark that crystallized a problem and pointed the way to its solution. Meetings that were scheduled to be only 15-minute "courtesy visits" with the AFT leader often turned into discussions that spanned several hours. "Word started circulating. People would say, ‘If you really want to understand what’s going on in education, you need to talk to Albert Shanker,’" remembers AFT legislative director Jerry Morris. "I’ve never seen anyone who could go into politically hostile territory and simply win people over by his judgment, reason and force of intellect."

Conservatives and liberals alike often called on Shanker to find out his thinking on issues, says Morris. (Once both the Republicans and Democrats asked Shanker to be their star witness in a hearing, says Morris, "and neither party knew that the other had asked for him.") Where others might respond predictably to an issue, "Shanker approached everything in a fresh way."

"Al’s dedication to education and labor issues was unique," says Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). "When he left the classroom to lead the AFT, he did not stop teaching. He simply adjusted his lessons for a new group of students—Congress and the American people."

One measure of Shanker’s influence on the Hill occurred during work on Chapter 1 legislation in the summer of 1994, says Morris. The AFT had been pressing for a move toward meaningful standards, and the legislation as it was being worked on was going in the wrong direction, he recalls. "We talked and talked to people on the Hill but they wouldn’t budge," says Morris. That is, until Shanker devoted his "Where We Stand" column in the New York Times that week to criticizing the legislation. "It was like a sonic boom," says Morris. "It had a profound effect" on changing the legislation.

Aside from ensuring AFT’s considerable influence on the Hill, Shanker also brought the union into the world of political action. As UFT president, he established a COPE (Committee on Political Education) operation that is today a powerhouse and model for any labor organization. He brought that commitment to the AFT when he became president of the national organization in 1974, hiring Rachelle Horowitz, the AFT’s political director for more than 20 years who retired in 1994, to set up the union’s COPE operation. Under Shanker, Horowitz choreographed the AFT’s political coming of age, nurturing a union of relative novices and transforming the union into one of the most respected and sophisticated political forces in the labor movement.