Teacher federation leader lashes out at Reagan cuts

The leader of 570,000 teachers told educators here to forget purely local budget concerns and ''move quickly'' to insure the national survival of public education, Monitor contributor Alf Siewers reports.

Warning that ''not educating children is like eating the 'seed' corn,'' Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the administration's budget proposals would weaken the US economy and defense by weakening public education.

Speaking to an urban education conference, Mr. Shanker criticized the President's proposed tuition tax credit for parents of private school students, and suggested public schools pay full tuition to send ''problem students'' to private schools. He urged teachers to lobby with national labor groups against proposed education cuts, especially in federal payments to schools with a high proportion of ''underprivileged'' students.