A leading school labor leader Thursday compared public education to the auto industry and warned about 700 northern Illinois school board members that unless labor and management stopped fighting and worked together to improve education, American parents would turn to private schools much as car buyers have turned to foreign markets.

Actually, that’s a lede from the Oct. 5th, 1985 edition of the Chicago Tribune (hat tip: Eduwonk) and the “leading labor leader” is Al Shanker, speaking to a national AFT meeting in Rosemont. The article continues,

Shanker has supported some type of merit pay or career ladders for better teachers, a national “bar exam“ for new teachers and evaluation of current teachers.
Thursday he repeated his calls for making teaching “a true profession,“ and said that wouldn`t happen as long as teaching was looked at as “an occupation you went into if you were stupid.“ 

“We have to give teachers respect and allow them to make some decisions about how they will do their jobs,“ said Shanker. “We aren`t going to get bright college graduates to go into teaching, even if we pay then high salaries, if they don`t feel they can use their talents and skills with some degree of independence.“