School Forecast: Unseasonably Mild

The back-to-school season began last week in an atmosphere of unwonted tranquillity. This year, in contrast to previous Septembers, early prospects were for relatively little turmoil from teacher strikes and demonstrations. In fact, school officials in most parts of the country were hopeful that the unusual calm in the nation's classrooms would prove to be long-lasting.

There were and will be some noisy exceptions, of course. In Boston, antibusing forces prepared to greet this week's school opening with massive demonstrations. The protests were aimed at a court-ordered plan to transfer 45,000 children to schools in other parts of the city in an effort to achieve racial integration. Elsewhere, there were scattered disruptions. In rural Plaistow, N.H., teachers seeking higher salaries and greater control over curriculums continued a seven-month strike--longest in the nation's history--by picketing opening-day classes at the local Timberlane High School. In Racine, Wis., School Superintendent C. Richard Nelson closed the city's 47 public schools two days after opening because teachers had decided to underline their contract demands by refusing to perform administrative duties.

Some 126,000 Michigan students stayed home because of strikes in 16 school systems; still, that scarcely compared with last year, when walkouts closed down 34 Michigan school systems, extending summer vacations for 650,000 students in Detroit alone.

In contrast with previous years, most teachers around the country seemed eager to sign their contracts and get back to their blackboards, despite pay increases that in some cases seemed positively paltry when measured against current inflation rates. Boston teachers last week accepted a raise of just 5.5% (to $9,415), and teachers at one school in the Detroit suburb of Southgate settled for a mere 4%.

Such settlements seemed to bear out the prediction of New York City Teacher Leader Albert Shanker that "the number of strikes will be small this year." Explains Shanker, who won the presidency of the 425,000-member American Federation of Teachers in a union election last month: "There is a general state of depression in which teachers are also caught. In this situation, they are willing to settle for less."

Indeed, the main struggle in U.S.

public education is likely to shift from the jousting of recent years between teachers and local school boards to a less visible fight for control of the nation's battling teacher unions. The prime contender is Shanker, who at 45 already has his hands on several levers of power in U.S. education. Besides the A.F.T., which is the second largest U.S. teachers' organization after the 1.5 million-member National Education Association, he heads New York City's United Federation of Teachers, whose showdowns with local officials over salaries and a school decentralization plan made Shanker's militant reputation in the late 1960s. He is also executive vice president of the New York State United Teachers (200,000 members) and a vice president of the AFL-CIO, with which the A.F.T. is affiliated.

Major Force. Shanker's immediate goal is to double the A.F.T.'s membership. He also wants to merge his union and the broader-based National Education Association--a possibility that does not interest N.E.A. officials, who consider him "power hungry." Shanker also talks enthusiastically about organizing all of the U.S.'s 3.5 million educational workers, only 50% of whom now belong to any national union.

"Teachers could be a major force for social progress in this country if they were organized," Shanker complains.

"Yet they are powerless. They have never been consulted by a President on any major issue. Four days after Ford became President, who did he meet with?

It was [AFL-CIO President George] Meany. He represents the largest bloc of organized workers in the country --and if we want a voice, we have to speak in a big one." Shanker clearly hopes to be that big voice.

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