Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools [Hardcover]

Terry M. Moe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2011

Why are America's public schools falling so short of the mark in educating the nation's children? Why are they organized in ineffective ways that fly in the face of common sense, to the point that it is virtually impossible to get even the worst teachers out of the classroom? And why, after more than a quarter century of costly education reform, have the schools proven so resistant to change and so difficult to improve?

In this path-breaking book, Terry M. Moe demonstrates that the answers to these questions have a great deal to do with teachers unions—which are by far the most powerful forces in American education and use their power to promote their own special interests at the expense of what is best for kids.

Despite their importance, the teachers unions have barely been studied. Special Interest fills that gap with an extraordinary analysis that is at once brilliant and kaleidoscopic—shedding new light on their historical rise to power, the organizational foundations of that power, the ways it is exercised in collective bargaining and politics, and its vast consequences for American education. The bottom line is simple but devastating: as long as the teachers unions remain powerful, the nation's schools will never be organized to provide kids with the most effective education possible.

Moe sees light at the end of the tunnel, however, due to two major transformations. One is political, the other technological, and the combination is destined to weaken the unions considerably in the coming years—loosening their special-interest grip and opening up a new era in which America's schools can finally be organized in the best interests of children.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An exquisitely researched, compellingly reasoned treatise on the role of teachers unions and their impact on America's schools. Terry Moe has read everything, collected mountains of data, and thought more deeply on this topic than anyone in America. Special Interest immediately becomes essential reading for policymakers, would-be reformers, and anyone concerned about the future of American education.--Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute

America's public schools are broken, and Terry Moe sets out to explain why. In a bare-knuckled and brilliant account, he shows how the teachers unions use their unmatched political power to control virtually every aspect of educational policy and practice. The result, not surprisingly, is a system that protects the interests of employees at the expense of our kids.--Joel Klein, CEO, News Corp Education Division, and former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools

This is a superb and historic book. Terry Moe, the first scholar to brave unions' wrath by revealing how they operate, now also shows how their dominance of public education will wane, due to political change and productivity-enhancing technology. Reformers, foundation heads, elected officials who have up to now been afraid to cross the unions, and union leaders and their allies should read this book as soon as they can get their hands on it.--Paul Hill, University of Washington

Anyone who wants to understand education reform and its challenges should read this extraordinary book. Over the past few decades, teachers unions have become some of the most powerful actors in American public education. Terry Moe fills a crucial gap by exploring how the unions work; how they veto important reforms in ways that are detrimental for children; and how their power might be waning. As with his prior work, this book will make a tremendous difference in how we run our schools.--Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools

Special Interest constitutes the most serious and sustained inquiry into teachers unions ever conducted. It has the signature markings of Moe's scholarship: impeccable writing, clear and persuasive argumentation, sound empirics, and an utter unwillingness to pull any punches. In the ongoing debate about teacher unions and school reform, this book is a game changer.--William Howell, University of Chicago

Moe shines a bright light on perhaps the most under-researched topic in all of education policy. This is a theoretical and empirical tour de force, revealing what makes the teachers unions tick and why they are absolutely central to any discussions of education reform. Along the way, it makes a persuasive case that the unions are often misunderstood, even by seasoned observers—and that this is encouraged by a rational union strategy. Moe's perspective on union power is bleak, laying bare its iron grip on the schools, but he offers hope that we are entering a special time that allows for significant change. ----Eric Hanushek, author of Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses

Anyone who wants to understand education reform and its challenges should read this extraordinary book. Over the past few decades, teachers unions have become some of the most powerful actors in American public education. Terry Moe fills a crucial gap by exploring how the unions work; how they veto important reforms in ways that are detrimental for children; and how their power might be waning. As with his prior work, this book will make a tremendous difference in how we run our schools. --Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools

America's public schools are broken, and Terry Moe sets out to explain why. In a bare-knuckled and brilliant account, he shows how the teachers unions use their unmatched political power to control virtually every aspect of educational policy and practice. The result, not surprisingly, is a system that protects the interests of employees at the expense of our kids. --Joel Klein, CEO, News Corp Education Division, and former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools

Review

"An exquisitely researched, compellingly reasoned treatise on the role of teachers unions and their impact on America's schools. Terry Moe has read everything, collected mountains of data, and thought more deeply on this topic than anyone in America. Special Interest immediately becomes essential reading for policymakers, would-be reformers, and anyone concerned about the future of American education." —Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 513 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press; 1st edition, edition (March 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815721293
• ISBN-13: 978-0815721291
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a crime, and the perps should be behind bars. June 2, 2011

By Passenger on the Titanic

Format:Hardcover

While this book is a bit of a slog, it's only because it's so well-researched and scholarly. But you still want to just curl up in the bathtub and open up a vein. As the other reviewer said, this should be required reading for every taxpayer in this country who's footing the bill for an education system that is abysmal, despite the fact that we spend approx. half of our tax dollars on it. There is nothing more important to our country than educating the next generations -- not even the economy -- and what the unions have done to it in our urban areas, where the most vulnerable children live, is a crime. If these actions had been imposed upon us by another country, it would be considered an act of war (what genius said that?) Terry Moe has done a magnificent job educating at least his readers.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary book! May 29, 2011

By L. Sand

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Collecting a colossal amount of data, Terry Moe has authored an extraordinary book about our nations' teachers unions. While much has been written about these unions in the last ten years or so, nothing has been written with the rigorous attention to detail that we find in Dr. Moe's Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.

The unions are examined in a myriad of ways - their relationships to teachers, effect on school boards, insistence on collective bargaining, rise as a unified powerful political entity, etc. Researched over a period of years, there are ninety pages of end notes.

This work should be required reading for education reformers, policy experts, taxpayers, parents and anyone else who is interested in how American public education works... or doesn't. At points during the book, you might experience feelings of despair about the future of public education, but toward the end of the book, Dr. Moe offers us some real reasons for hope.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding & Stunningly Detailed Expose on Teachers Unions June 11, 2011

By A Rationalist

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

You know the teachers unions are losing in the court of public opinion, when the card-carrying, unionized director of the liberal documentary An Inconvenient Truth - Davis Guggenheim - almost wins another Oscar for his shred-job on the teachers unions in Waiting for Superman. While Davis does an admirable job of making the emotional case for public school reform, Terry Moe's timely empirical analysis goes a mile deeper into the "systemic pathologies" in public school organization, focusing on the enormously powerful and completely self-interested teachers unions. A quote from former AFT President, Albert Shanker, says it all: "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." Unequivocally, if every parent in America read this book from cover to cover, they would take up pitch-forks and torches and storm their state capitals demanding the end of archaic union rules like "last-hired, first-fired" that persist under the current tenure system. Terry does a wonderful job distinguishing, importantly, between the personal feelings of teachers - which are almost always intrinsically motivated to benevolence towards their pupils - and the outcome of their collective bargaining, which always results in protecting solely the interests of teachers first and foremost. Expecting a union to embrace reform is like asking a cat to bark - its just not going to happen. If you analyze the teachers union for what it is, there is virtually no chance of it changing on its own, without being subject to outside forces. Incentives matter, and unions have every incentive to myopically watch out for the interests of its own members - not school children. You'll need anti-depressants for the first 90% of the book, which focuses on the horrid current state of affairs, how we got in this mess (liberal democrats opening the legislative floodgates for unions to gain power and influence that became self-perpetuating) and how it is unlikely to change in the absence of a big exogenous shock. Fortunately, the final chapter, "A Critical Juncture," leaves readers with hope that the second-derivative from here is positive due to the disruptive potential of emerging technology on the education process. If Terry is right, the teachers unions are about to follow the atrophying arc of the United Auto Workers, though it will likely take a long time to erode their current level of influence. Bottom-line is that this book is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in education reform and improving the future human capital capacity of the United States. Be sure to also Google "The Widget Effect" and read that paper, along with watching "The Lottery" and "The Cartel," which are both excellent and very similar to Waiting for Superman, just without an Oscar-winning director doing the PR. Spread the word on Terry's excellent work here - I literally bought a case of "Special Interest" books to distribute to 'thought leaders' in my community, hoping his work and conclusions will go viral.