NYSUT statement on the death of former American Federation of Teachers president Sandra Feldman
September 19, 2005
"Sandy Feldman's courageous battle against breast cancer was yet another remarkable chapter in a remarkable life.
"In her every action, Sandy Feldman defined courage. She stood tall for children, for education, for social justice and fairness, and she never wavered no matter how high the odds or how seemingly insurmountable the obstacle.
"Our memory of Sandy Feldman will be that of a fighter who lived a life marked by strength, grace and dignity.
"She was loved. She will be missed."
Richard C. Iannuzzi, President
New York State United Teachers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sandra Feldman, who rose from her position as a second-grade elementary school teacher in New York City to become president of the 1.3 million member American Federation of Teachers, died last night after a long battle with cancer, AFT President Edward J. McElroy announced today. Feldman would have been 66 years old next month.
"Sandy's death is a great loss for the AFT personally and professionally and for the children of our nation," said McElroy. "She was a leader without comparison and will be remembered for her vigorous commitment to better the lives of the teachers and school staff she represented and the children they served. Presidents, members of Congress, educators and business leaders relied on her expertise and ideas to help forge their own opinions on how to help those who needed it most."
Feldman was a national labor leader and served as a member of the Executive Council and the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO. Throughout her life, she was a tireless advocate for children, public education and trade unionism. As president of AFT, Feldman also was in the forefront of efforts to defend the rights of other employees in the school workplace, nurses and healthcare professionals, public employees and higher education faculty and staff, all of whom AFT represents.
Her career in education, which spanned more than four decades, grew out of her early activity in the civil rights movement. An advocate for civil rights and social justice, she was an activist in the Freedom Rides and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She was arrested twice during the Freedom Rides.
In 1986, Feldman became president of the AFT's largest affiliate, New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and quickly became a respected education leader on the local and national stage. During her time at the UFT and, since 1997, as president of the AFT, she met on many occasions with four presidents and countless members of Congress. In meetings with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and many legislators, Feldman called for greater investment in public education and a greater emphasis on high standards and increased accountability. Feldman placed a particular priority on early childhood education, which she often expressed as "getting it right from the start." She retired as president of the AFT in 2004 for health reasons.
Feldman's strong commitment to public education came directly out of her own experience growing up in a poor family in Brooklyn, N.Y. She would often say it was the public schools and the public libraries that "created my future." She credited her second-grade teacher with inspiring her love of reading. As a child, Feldman would spend hours in the Coney Island branch of the public library, devouring books. A product of public schools through high school, she got her B.A. degree in English from Brooklyn College and her M.A. in English Literature from New York University. It was while an undergraduate at Brooklyn College that she became involved in campus groups working for civil rights and social justice.
Two famous figures served as mentors to Feldman during this period. Under the tutelage of noted civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, Feldman became a civil rights activist. She also was a protégé of Albert Shanker, whom she succeeded as president of both the UFT in New York and the American Federation of Teachers.
Randi Weingarten, who succeeded Feldman at the UFT and considered Feldman her mentor, said, "Those who knew Sandy well knew just how hard she worked and how much she personally sacrificed so others would have social justice and economic opportunity. She was a giant and will be hugely missed."
Feldman went from teacher to union activist quickly in New York when she led the teachers at her elementary school in organizing a union. Shanker, then the UFT president, recognized that her skills extended beyond the classroom, and she became a UFT field representative, working directly with Shanker through the tumultuous 1960s.
She never forgot her roots and the tremendous difference that public education had made in her life. Visiting schools around the city was one of her duties as UFT president, as well as a personal joy. When she would go to Coney Island schools, she would invariably take 10 minutes afterward for a walk on the boardwalk, a quick glimpse of the ocean from the view she knew as a child, and a hot dog at Nathan's.
On one school visit as president of the UFT, Feldman encountered a high school teacher on whom she, as a student at Madison High School, had had a crush. In an unusual reversal of roles, the teacher asked Feldman for help -- in raising teacher salaries. Feldman wrote up the exchange in a column titled "Thank you, Mr. Locker," in which she thanked him for making her learn to think and vowed to him that she would do everything she could to improve teacher salaries.
From her beginnings as a poor child in Coney Island, Feldman rose not only to meet with American presidents but also with foreign leaders. A strong proponent of civic education and democracy in the international arena, Feldman served as a vice president of Education International and as a board member of the International Rescue Committee and Freedom House; she condemned terrorism and repression of human and worker rights abroad, from China to Colombia, from the Soviet Union to Sudan. She also visited several countries under Communist rule to help teachers there form labor unions and improve classroom conditions.
Feldman's focus on early childhood education led her in 2003 to propose Kindergarten-Plus, a program that provides extended learning opportunities for disadvantaged students before and after the normal kindergarten school year. Within just a few years, a Kindergarten-Plus law was passed in one state, federal Kindergarten-Plus legislation was introduced, and Kindergarten-Plus bills have been passed or considered in several other states.
Feldman is survived by her husband, Arthur Barnes, who is a senior vice president for external affairs of HIP Health Plans; a brother, Larry Abramowitz, of New York City; a sister, Helen Berliner, of Wylie, Texas; and two children and two grandchildren of Mr. Barnes.
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The AFT represents 1.3 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; nurses and healthcare workers; and federal, state and local government employees.
NYSUT, the largest union in New York state, represents more than 525,000 classroom teachers and other school employees; academic and professional faculty at the state's community colleges, State University of New York and City University of New York; and other education and health professionals. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
"Sandy Feldman's courageous battle against breast cancer was yet another remarkable chapter in a remarkable life.