Terry M. Moe: 'Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools'

Why are America's public schools falling so short of the mark in education 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 my new book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools (Brookings) I demonstrate that the answers to these questions have a great deal to do with teachers unions--which are by far the most powerful force 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 the gap with strong analysis. I shed 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. Click here to learn more about Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools.