The Politics of Teachers Union Endorsements

• In Event: Interest Groups, Voting, and Participation in School District Politics

Abstract

One of the most striking regularities in American school board elections is the success of candidates formally supported by local teachers’ unions. In this paper, we report on three studies that examine the causes and consequences of this “union premium” in these elections. First, we show that teachers’ union endorsements improve candidate electoral success in part due to their value as cues for voters, who increase their support for teacher-preferred candidates in response to endorsement information. Second, we find that union endorsement decisions are driven by self-interested pecuniary considerations and not by elected officials’ performance in improving student academic outcomes. The divergence between what endorsements mean and how voters interpret have troubling normative democratic implications, with teacher interest groups translating widespread trust among voters into political power and policy influence.

Authors

• Michael T. Hartney, Hoover Fellow, Stanford University

• Vladimir Kogan, Ohio State University