Terry M. Moe
Encyclopedia
Terry M. Moe is the William Bennett Munro professor of political science at Stanford University
, a senior fellow at Stanford University
's Hoover Institution
, and a member of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force
on K-12 Education. Moe is a respected political scientist, an education scholar, and a bestselling author. He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego
, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota
.
Moe has written extensively on the politics and reform of American education. In his latest book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools(Brookings Institution Press, 2011), he provides the first comprehensive study of America’s teachers unions, 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 consequences for schools and kids. Through an analysis that is far-ranging and detailed, he shows that the teachers unions are the most powerful force in American education—and he argues that this is the key to understanding why, after more than a quarter century of costly education reform
, the nation’s schools have proven so resistant to change and so difficult to improve.
As a political scientist, Moe has written at length on public bureaucracy, the presidency, and political institutions more generally. Aside from his substantive contributions—regarding, for instance, the (ineffective) organization of bureaucratic agencies and the politicization and centralization of the institutional presidency—Moe was an early proponent (during the 1980s and into the 1990s) of putting the analytics of institutional theory to use in transforming the study of public bureaucracy and the presidency, and was instrumental in bringing significant progress to both fields.
Moe began his career in 1976 as an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University
, where he soon published his first book, The Organization of Interests (University of Chicago Press
, 1980), which explored the organizational foundations of political interest groups. In 1981, he left for Stanford University
, where he has been a member of its political science faculty ever since.
He took leave from Stanford from 1984-86 to be a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
in Washington, D.C. There he engaged in collaborative work with John Chubb on what became Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (Brookings Institution Press, 1990)—a book that, in showing how politics shapes and undermines the public schools and in arguing the value of school choice, had a major impact on the education reform movement. It is regarded as among the most influential and controversial works on education to be published in the last two decades.
In 1992 Moe became a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
, and thereafter held joint appointments in both the Stanford political science department and Hoover. From 2003-07, he served as chair of the political science department. In 2003 he was also awarded the William Bennett Munro Professorship, an endowed chair in political science.
"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
"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
Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education (with John Chubb - 2009, Jossey-Bass)
Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public (2001, The Brookings Institution Press)
Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (with John Chubb - 1990, The Brookings Institution Press)
The Organization of Interests (1980, University of Chicago Press)
"The Politicized Presidency." 1985. In The New Direction in American Politics, edited by John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution: 235-71.
“The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure.” 1989. Can the Government Govern?, edited by John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution: 267-329.
“Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story." 1990. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 6: 213-254. Reprinted in Public Choice Theory, edited by Charles K. Rowley, 1993. Hant, England: Edward Elgar.
“Presidents, Institutions, and Theory.” 1993. In Researching the Presidency: Vital Questions, New Approaches, edited by George C. Edwards III, John H. Kessel and Bert A. Rockman. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
“The Presidential Power of Unilateral Action.” 1999 (with William Howell). Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 15 no. 1 (April): 132-179. Reprinted in Public Choice and Public Law, edited by Daniel A. Farber. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007.
“Power and Political Institutions.” 2005. Perspectives on Politics. Vol. 3, No. 2 (June): 215-33. Reprinted in Rethinking Political Institutions: The Art of the State, edited by Ian Shapiro, Stephen Skowronek and Daniel Galvin. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
“The Revolution in Presidential Theory.” 2009. Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol. 39 No. 3 (December): 701-724.
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, a senior fellow at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
's Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, and a member of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force
Koret Task Force
The Koret Task Force on K–12 Education is a group of senior education scholars brought together by the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, who work collectively as well as individually on American public education reform issues. The task force was created in 1999 as part of the Hoover...
on K-12 Education. Moe is a respected political scientist, an education scholar, and a bestselling author. He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
.
Moe has written extensively on the politics and reform of American education. In his latest book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools(Brookings Institution Press, 2011), he provides the first comprehensive study of America’s teachers unions, 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 consequences for schools and kids. Through an analysis that is far-ranging and detailed, he shows that the teachers unions are the most powerful force in American education—and he argues that this is the key to understanding why, after more than a quarter century of costly education reform
Education reform
Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...
, the nation’s schools have proven so resistant to change and so difficult to improve.
As a political scientist, Moe has written at length on public bureaucracy, the presidency, and political institutions more generally. Aside from his substantive contributions—regarding, for instance, the (ineffective) organization of bureaucratic agencies and the politicization and centralization of the institutional presidency—Moe was an early proponent (during the 1980s and into the 1990s) of putting the analytics of institutional theory to use in transforming the study of public bureaucracy and the presidency, and was instrumental in bringing significant progress to both fields.
Moe began his career in 1976 as an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, where he soon published his first book, The Organization of Interests (University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
, 1980), which explored the organizational foundations of political interest groups. In 1981, he left for Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he has been a member of its political science faculty ever since.
He took leave from Stanford from 1984-86 to be a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
in Washington, D.C. There he engaged in collaborative work with John Chubb on what became Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (Brookings Institution Press, 1990)—a book that, in showing how politics shapes and undermines the public schools and in arguing the value of school choice, had a major impact on the education reform movement. It is regarded as among the most influential and controversial works on education to be published in the last two decades.
In 1992 Moe became a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, and thereafter held joint appointments in both the Stanford political science department and Hoover. From 2003-07, he served as chair of the political science department. In 2003 he was also awarded the William Bennett Munro Professorship, an endowed chair in political science.
Special Interest: Teachers Union and America's Public Schools
Released in April 2011 by The Brookings Institution Press, Terry Moe’s Special Interest: Teachers Union and America’s Public Schools addresses key questions about the public school system that have long perplexed policy makers. Moe demonstrates that the answers to these questions have a great deal to do with the teachers unions, who use their power—in politics, in collective bargaining—to pursue their own special interests at the expense of what is best for children."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
Joel Klein
Joel Irwin Klein was Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States, serving more than 1.1 million students in more than 1,600 schools...
, CEO, News Corp Education Division, and former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools
"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
Michelle Rhee
Michelle A. Rhee is a public figure involved in the American education system. She was chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools from 2007 to 2010...
, former Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools is the traditional public school system of Washington, D.C. in the United States.- Composition and enrollment :...
"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
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
Publications: Selected Books
Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools (2011, The Brookings Institution Press)Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education (with John Chubb - 2009, Jossey-Bass)
Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public (2001, The Brookings Institution Press)
Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (with John Chubb - 1990, The Brookings Institution Press)
The Organization of Interests (1980, University of Chicago Press)
Publications: Selected Political Science Articles
“The New Economics of Organization.” 1984. American Journal of Political Science 28 (November): 739-777."The Politicized Presidency." 1985. In The New Direction in American Politics, edited by John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution: 235-71.
“The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure.” 1989. Can the Government Govern?, edited by John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution: 267-329.
“Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story." 1990. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 6: 213-254. Reprinted in Public Choice Theory, edited by Charles K. Rowley, 1993. Hant, England: Edward Elgar.
“Presidents, Institutions, and Theory.” 1993. In Researching the Presidency: Vital Questions, New Approaches, edited by George C. Edwards III, John H. Kessel and Bert A. Rockman. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
“The Presidential Power of Unilateral Action.” 1999 (with William Howell). Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 15 no. 1 (April): 132-179. Reprinted in Public Choice and Public Law, edited by Daniel A. Farber. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007.
“Power and Political Institutions.” 2005. Perspectives on Politics. Vol. 3, No. 2 (June): 215-33. Reprinted in Rethinking Political Institutions: The Art of the State, edited by Ian Shapiro, Stephen Skowronek and Daniel Galvin. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
“The Revolution in Presidential Theory.” 2009. Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol. 39 No. 3 (December): 701-724.