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Encore Careers: Serving the Public Interest After 80

August 20, 2026 by Stanley S. Litow

Our guest author is Stanley Litow, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a Shanker Institute Board Member.
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Publications

Is AMERICA Still a DEMOCRACY? by Eric Chenoweth
A research brief by Eric Chenoweth, the principal author of Democracy Web, analyzing the political state of the United States as it approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding through comparison of the country's ratings in the Varieties of Democracy Project and Freedom House reports.
The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems (Eighth Edition)
A national evaluation of the K-12 school finance systems of all 50 states and D.C., published by researchers from the Albert Shanker Institute, University of Miami, and Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
What Would Bayard Rustin Do? by Eric Chenoweth
Eric Chenoweth is director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe and principal author of Democracy Web, an online comparative study guide for teachers, students and civic activists. He worked with Bayard Rustin in various capacities in the late 1970s and 1980s.

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Our Mission

The Albert Shanker Institute, endowed by the American Federation of Teachers and named in honor of its late president, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to three themes - excellence in public education, unions as advocates for quality, and freedom of association in the public life of democracies. With an independent Board of Directors (composed of educators, business representatives, labor leaders, academics, and public policy analysts), its mission is to generate ideas, foster candid exchanges, and promote constructive policy proposals related to these issues.

This blog offers informal commentary on the research, news, and controversies related to the work of the Institute.

August 2026

Encore Careers: Serving the Public Interest After 80