The recent 11-day teachers’ strike in Newton, Mass., was the state’s largest and longest in 30 years, and the seventh in Massachusetts public schools since 2019. In all, according to the University of Albany (State University of New York), there have been approximately 750 teachers’ strikes across the country since 2007. Recently, Boston College Chronicle hosted a discussion on this trend with two Boston College faculty members: C. Patrick Proctor, chair of the Teaching, Curriculum, and Society Department at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and an education specialist for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; and Associate Professor of Political Science Michael Hartney, whose research and teaching interests include state and local politics, interest groups, and public policy—his book, How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education, analyzes the rise of teachers unions to their current place of status and influence in the United States.

Moderated by Phil Gloudemans, Office of University Communications
Produced by Paul Dagnello, Office of University Communications