

McGuinn Hall Room 515
Email: michael.hartney@bc.edu
ORCID
State and Local Politics and Policy, Interest Groups, Education Policy, Political Institutions
Professor Hartneys 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.泭
Hartneys academic scholarship has been published in the fields 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 Hartneys 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 Associations (APSA) prize for the best book on education politics and policy. The monograph explains the origins, power, and political activities of Americas 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 Universitys Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, was a national fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution.泭泭
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 bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University.
泭
The Politics of Teachers Union Endorsements, with Vladimir Kogan,泭American Journal of Political Science,泭Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2025) pp. 1163-79.
Red States Have Seen Less Learning Loss, with Paul Peterson,泭Education Next, Feb. 13, 2025.
The Myth of the Working Class Voter, with Vladimir Kogan,泭The Hill, Nov. 4, 2024.
School district budgets catch long COVID, with Vladimir Kogan,泭The Hill, April 16, 2024.
To Improve Literacy, Massachusetts Should Look to Mississippi, with David Wakelyn, Boston Globe, March 18, 2024.
State Labor Laws and Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion, with Daniel DiSalvo and Patrick Flavin,泭Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 3 (September 2023) pp. 1475-85.
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.