TEACHERS MOURN LEADER'S DEATH.

Byline: Frank Bruni The New York Times

The death of Albert Shanker, the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, silences one of the brashest, most persuasive and most respected voices in American education, education leaders said Sunday.

Shanker in the 1960s transformed New York City's United Federation of Teachers into one of the nation's most powerful unions. More recently he lent his passion and perseverance to the crusade for higher, more uniform national standards for students and teachers.

While education-reform movements have gathered enough support to survive without Shanker, his inimitable amalgam of belligerence and eloquence will be missed, many teachers said.

AFT leaders would not speculate on who would emerge as the leading candidate to take over the helm at the federation.

``Someone will develop to take his place in the American Federation of Teachers, but on the national scene, it will take a long time,'' said Charles Schonhaut, an education consultant who was a deputy chancellor in New York City Schools and a dean of the Long Island University School of Education.

``There are a lot of good people out there, but they don't yet have his stature,'' Schonhaut said. ``I don't see anyone around who can take his place.''

Shanker died Saturday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan after a three-year battle with bladder cancer. He was 68 and lived in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and Manhattan.

His duties as president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has about 900,000 members nationwide, will be assumed for now by the federation's secretary-treasurer, Edward McElroy Jr., although McElroy will keep his old title.

In May, the executive council of the federation will vote on a president to fill the remainder of Shanker's two-year term, which will expire in July 1998. His possible successors include not only McElroy but also Sandra Feldman, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents about 90,000 active employees in New York City public schools.

Feldman declined to talk about succession issues Sunday, saying that she preferred to focus on Shanker's legacy. She said he helped create professional training opportunities and benefits teachers never previously had.

But he went beyond the nuts and bolts of union leadership to make both unions and himself forces in articulating and carrying out philosophy on education. ``Al's influence, in the country and worldwide, was just enormous,'' Feldman said.

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PHOTO Albert Shanker

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