How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education – Book Review

We hear that teachers unions are out for what’s best for the kids. We’re told teachers strikes are for the kids.

Are teachers unions positive or negative for American education? Today we bring you a book that may be worth your time to read…IF…you are deeply concerned about K-12 education and the future of the nation.

Link: Amazon

“Hartney makes a courageous but careful foray into the highly charged debate over the causes and consequences of teacher unionization in America…a meticulous, nuanced, and thoughtful book that should be read by anyone who cares about public education in the United States.” ― Education Next

“[Hartney] uses rigorous quantitative analysis to document how unions built and maintained influence in the years since: negotiating agreements that prioritize their institutional stability, mobilizing for state and local elections, and leveraging American Federalism to block legislation they oppose. For this reason, the book is sure to be foundational for anyone studying teacher unions and education, especially in political science, history, and sociology.” ― Choice

“Teachers’ unions loom large when it comes to education politics and policy. Depending on how you see things, they’re either essential champions for kids and educators—or the biggest obstacle to school improvement. . . . Mike Hartney has written a terrific book, How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education, which helps illuminate some of the tensions behind the headlines. He explains the odd partnership between government bodies and the unions, in an analysis that helps make sense of the debates over school closures and pandemic schooling.” ― Rick Hess Straight Up

“This is an important, bold, and meticulously-researched book. Hartney brings together an impressive array of data to demonstrate just how extensively the government has subsidized teachers’ unions’ organization—and how teachers’ unions use their resources and clout to influence state and local policy. This is an important contribution to scholarship on policy feedback and is also essential reading for anyone trying to understand the politics of education in the United States.”
— Sarah F. Anzia, University of California, Berkeley

“A very rich empirical portrait of teacher political involvement and union power. Hartney breaks new ground with his findings. This timely work is essential reading for scholars, educators, and policymakers.”
— Sarah Reckhow, author of Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public School Politics

“Beautifully written and thoughtfully composed, the book does not merely fill a gap in the literature. It opens our eyes to hugely consequential developments of the last 50 years and their enduring implications for lobbying, state formation, the limited possibilities for policy change, and the evolution of the Democratic Party.”

— William Howell, author of Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy

“Hartney brings a careful and empirical perspective to bear on a question that has for decades been the subject of legend: the influence of teachers’ unions upon education policies, and on student outcomes.”
— Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“Deftly analyzing a mass of data, Michael Hartney guides the reader through the fraught debate over the role of teachers unions in American politics. Hartney’s analysis is measured, careful, and compelling. This is a book that will be of great interest to scholars as well as informed readers interested public education.”

— Daniel DiSalvo, City College of New York-CUNY

“Hartney has written an innovative book of exceptional quality. Exploring the origins, power, and activities of America’s teachers unions, he demonstrates the pervasive consequences of ‘policy feedback’ on American education: with government policies (state labor laws) promoting union power, which then feeds back to profoundly shape politics—and government policies themselves. His analysis is comprehensive, based on a variety of data sets, and beautifully crafted. It makes a significant contribution to the study of education politics, as well as the study of institutional politics generally.” — Terry M. Moe, Stanford University