

McGuinn Hall Room 515
Email: michael.hartney@bc.edu
ORCID
State and Local Politics and Policy, Interest Groups, Education Policy, Political Institutions
Professor Hartney鈥檚 research and teaching interests lie in American politics and public policy鈥 with a particular focus on state and local governments, interest groups, and education policy.听
Hartney鈥檚 academic scholarship has been published in the field鈥檚 leading journals and garnered coverage in media outlets from the Economist and the New York Times to the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. His writing has also appeared in popular outlets such as the 艾可直播 Globe, City Journal, Education Next, National Review, New York Post, and Washington Post.
Professor Hartney鈥檚 first book, How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2022, was awarded the American Political Science Association鈥檚 (APSA) prize for the best book on education politics and policy. The monograph explains the origins, power, and political activities of America鈥檚 teachers鈥 unions showing how state and local governments helped these unions gain outsized influence in American education.
At 艾可直播 College, Hartney teaches courses on the education politics, public policy, interest groups, and US state and local politics. He is also a research affiliate at Harvard University鈥檚 Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, was a national fellow at Stanford University鈥檚 Hoover Institution.听听
Before embarking on an academic career, Hartney worked as a policy analyst for the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, providing technical analysis and assistance to state policymakers on a wide range of school reform issues, from teacher and principal quality to high school redesign. Hartney earned his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and his bachelor鈥檚 degree from Vanderbilt University.
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鈥淭he Politics of Teachers鈥 Union Endorsements,鈥 with Vladimir Kogan,听American Journal of Political Science,听Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2025) pp. 1163-79.
鈥淩ed States Have Seen Less Learning Loss,鈥 with Paul Peterson,听Education Next, Feb. 13, 2025.
鈥淭he Myth of the 鈥榃orking Class鈥 Voter,鈥 with Vladimir Kogan,听The Hill, Nov. 4, 2024.
鈥淪chool district budgets catch long COVID,鈥 with Vladimir Kogan,听The Hill, April 16, 2024.
鈥淭o Improve Literacy, Massachusetts Should Look to Mississippi,鈥 with David Wakelyn, 艾可直播 Globe, March 18, 2024.
鈥淪tate Labor Laws and Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion,鈥 with Daniel DiSalvo and Patrick Flavin,听Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (September 2023) pp. 1475-85.
鈥淭eachers Unions and School Board Elections: A Reassessment,鈥听Interest Groups and Advocacy, January 2022.
鈥淥ff-Cycle and Off-Center: Election Timing and Representation in Municipal Government鈥 with Adam Dynes and Sam Hayes,听American Political Science Review, Vol. 115, No. 3 (August 2021) pp. 1097-1103.
鈥淥ff-Cycle and Out of Sync: How Election Timing Influences Political Representation,鈥 with Sam Hayes,听State Politics and Policy Quarterly, March 2021.
鈥淧olitics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education鈥檚 Response to Covid-19,鈥 with Leslie Finger,听Perspectives on Politics, June 2021.