McGuinn Hall Room 515
Email: michael.hartney@bc.edu
ORCID
State and Local Politics and Policy, Interest Groups, Education Policy, Political Institutions
Professor Hartney research and teaching interests lie in American politics and public policy with a particular focus on state and local governments, interest groups, and education policy.听
Hartney academic scholarship has been published in the field 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 Boston Globe, City Journal, Education Next, National Review, New York Post, and Washington Post.
Professor Hartney 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 (APSA) prize for the best book on education politics and policy. The monograph explains the origins, power, and political activities of America teachers unions showing how state and local governments helped these unions gain outsized influence in American education.
At Boston 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 Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, was a national fellow at Stanford University 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 degree from Vanderbilt University.
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淭he Politics of Teachers Union Endorsements, with Vladimir Kogan,听American Journal of Political Science,听Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2025) pp. 1163-79.
淩ed States Have Seen Less Learning Loss, with Paul Peterson,听Education Next, Feb. 13, 2025.
淭he Myth of the 榃orking Class Voter, with Vladimir Kogan,听The Hill, Nov. 4, 2024.
淪chool district budgets catch long COVID, with Vladimir Kogan,听The Hill, April 16, 2024.
淭o Improve Literacy, Massachusetts Should Look to Mississippi, with David Wakelyn, Boston Globe, March 18, 2024.
淪tate Labor Laws and Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion, with Daniel DiSalvo and Patrick Flavin,听Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (September 2023) pp. 1475-85.
淭eachers Unions and School Board Elections: A Reassessment,听Interest Groups and Advocacy, January 2022.
淥ff-Cycle and Off-Center: Election Timing and Representation in Municipal Government with Adam Dynes and Sam Hayes,听American Political Science Review, Vol. 115, No. 3 (August 2021) pp. 1097-1103.
淥ff-Cycle and Out of Sync: How Election Timing Influences Political Representation, with Sam Hayes,听State Politics and Policy Quarterly, March 2021.
淧olitics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education Response to Covid-19, with Leslie Finger,听Perspectives on Politics, June 2021.