Michael T. Hartney

About

Michael Hartney is the Bruni Family Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, an associate professor at Boston College, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He is also a research affiliate at Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell Hoover National Fellow.

Hartney’s scholarly expertise is in American politics and public policy with a focus on state and local government, interest groups, and education policy. His academic research has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review and the American Journal of Political Science and received media coverage in the Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. His writing has also appeared in popular outlets such as City Journal, Education Next, National Review, the New York Post, and the Washington Post.

Hartney’s first book, How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education, published by the University of Chicago Press, was awarded the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) prize for the best book on education politics and policy. The monograph helps explain the origins, power, and political activities of America’s teachers’ unions showing how state and local governments helped teachers unions gain outsized influence in American education.

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’s degree from Vanderbilt University.