

McGuinn Hall Room 224
Email: michael.hartney@bc.edu
ORCID
State and Local Politics and Policy, Interest Groups, Education Policy, Political Institutions
Michael Hartney joined the Boston College political science泭faculty in fall 2017. Professor Hartneys main research and teaching interests泭include: state and local politics, interest groups, and public policy. His泭scholarship has been published in leading academic journals such as the American泭Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review,泭Perspectives on Politics, and Public Administration Review and泭has garnered coverage in the Economist, New York Times, Washington泭Post, and Wall Street Journal.
In 2022, the University of Chicago Press published his first泭book: How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American泭Education. The book explains the rise of teachers unions to their current泭place of status and influence in the United States, detailing how state and泭local governments adopted policies that subsidizedand in turn strengthenedthe泭power of unions in education politics.
At Boston College, Hartney teaches courses on the politics泭of education, environmental policy, and US state and local politics. He is also泭a research affiliate at Harvard Universitys Program on Education Policy and泭Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, a national fellow at Stanford Universitys泭Hoover Institution.泭泭
Prior to academia, Hartney worked as a policy analyst for泭the泭National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. At NGA, he泭provided policy analysis to泭governors on a wide range of K12 school泭reform issues, from teacher and泭principal quality to high school redesign.泭泭Hartney holds a Ph.D. in political泭science from the University of Notre泭Dame and a bachelors degree, also in泭political science, from Vanderbilt泭University.
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Teachers Unions and School Board Elections: A Reassessment,泭Interest Groups and Advocacy, January 2022.
Off-Cycle and Off-Center: Election Timing and Representation in Municipal Government with Adam Dynes and Sam Hayes,泭American Political Science Review, Vol. 115, No. 3 (August 2021) pp. 1097-1103.
Off-Cycle and Out of Sync: How Election Timing Influences Political Representation, with Sam Hayes,泭State Politics and Policy Quarterly, March 2021.
Politics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Educations Response to Covid-19, with Leslie Finger,泭Perspectives on Politics, June 2021.
Financial Solidarity: The Future of Labor Unions in the post-Janus Era, with Leslie Finger,泭Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (March 2021) pp. 19-35.
Closures and Consequences, with Renu Mukherjee,泭City Journal, December 8, 2021.
What determined if schools reopened? How many Trump voters were in a district, with Leslie Finger,泭Washington Post, November 10, 2020.
School Reopening Decisions Linked to Trump Vote Share and Catholic School Presence, with Leslie Finger,泭Education Next, October 29, 2020.
Stop Playing Politics with School Re-openings,泭Newsweek, October 16, 2020.
Teachers Unions in the post-Janus泭World, with Daniel DiSalvo,泭Education Next, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Fall 2020).
Show Who the Money? Teacher Sorting Patterns and Performance Pay across U.S. School Districts, with Michael Jones,泭Public Administration Review,泭77(6): 919-931.
Racial Inequality in Democratic Accountability: Evidence from Retrospective Voting in Local Elections, with Patrick Flavin,泭American Journal of Political Science,泭61(3): 684-697.