Terry M. Moe

Senior Fellow
Research Team: 
Awards and Honors:
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Biography: 

Terry M. Moe is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Institution's Koret Task Force on K–12 education, and the William Bennett Munro Professor of political science at Stanford University.

Moe has written extensively on the politics and reform of American education. In his new book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools (2011), he provides the first comprehensive study of America’s teachers unions: exploring 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 the nation’s public schools.

His seminal book with John E. Chubb, Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, is among the most influential and controversial works on education to be published during the last two decades—showing how politics shapes and undermines the public schools and arguing the value of school choice. In Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of America (2009), Moe and John E. Chubb map out a dynamic vision of the nation's educational future, showing how the ideas and innovations of information technology will ultimately transform the public schools to the benefit of the nation and its children. For more information, visit the Liberating Learning website.

Moe is also the author of Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public (2001), the first detailed analysis of public opinion on the voucher issue. In addition, he is editor of A Primer on America's Schools (Hoover Institution Press, 2001) and the author of many published articles.

In 2005, Moe received the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Prize for Excellence in Education.

As a political scientist, Moe’s research interests extend well beyond public education. He has written extensively on public bureaucracy and the presidency, and the theory of political institutions more generally. His most prominent articles include "The New Economics of Organization," "The Politicized Presidency," "The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure," "Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story," "Presidents, Institutions, and Theory," “The Presidential Power of Unilateral Action” (with William Howell), and “Power and Political Institutions.”

In addition to his positions at Stanford and Hoover, Moe has served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC.

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Recent Commentary

John E. Chubb
Analysis and Commentary

A Tribute To John Chubb

by Terry M. Moefeaturing John E. Chubbvia EducationNext
Friday, November 20, 2015

John Chubb passed away on November 12, 2015, after a valiant struggle with cancer. I am at a loss for words. I suppose I should start with the obvious: that with his passing the nation lost a pioneer in education reform, someone who, for a quarter century, fought hard for change, innovation, and improvement in America’s schools.

Teachers picket in La Habra last December
Analysis and Commentary

Teachers Unions Vs. Students

by Terry M. Moevia Prager U
Monday, July 28, 2014

There is a dilemma in American education. On the one hand, teachers are essential to student achievement. On the other, teachers unions promote self-interests of their members which are antithetical to the interests of students. So, how do we fix this problem?

Classroom students

Special: Moe, Evers, and Damon on the John Batchelor Show

by Terry M. Moe, William Damon, Williamson M. Eversvia John Batchelor Show
Friday, May 9, 2014

In conjunction with a special live taping of the John Batchelor Show at the Hoover Spring Retreat, John Batchelor and Mary Kissel of the Wall Street Journal hosted a discussion on education reform, featuring Hoover senior fellows Terry Moe and William Damon and Hoover research fellows Williamsom Evers.

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Moe on John Batchelor Show: “they will have the best the world has to offer”

by Terry M. Moevia John Batchelor Show
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Hoover senior fellow Terry Moe discusses education on the John Batchelor Show. Topics include the teachers’ unions, the difficulty of endogenous change, and education technology.

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Blank Section (Placeholder)Analysis and Commentary

Has Ed Reform Failed?

by Terry M. Moevia Defining Ideas
Thursday, April 24, 2014

Real change won’t come until we strip teachers unions of their power.

young child with sign

Struck Out

by Terry M. Moevia Hoover Digest
Friday, January 25, 2013

Chicago schoolchildren went back to class—and the striking teachers went back to business as usual. By Terry M. Moe.

Extracurricular Revolution

by John E. Chubb, Terry M. Moevia Hoover Digest
Friday, October 26, 2012

Online learning poses no threat to the cherished college experience, which it will only change for the better. By John E. Chubb and Terry M. Moe.

Analysis and Commentary

Chicago Teachers' Strike Hurts Our Kids

by Terry M. Moevia CNN
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Analysis and Commentary

The End of Teachers Unions

by Terry M. Moevia Defining Ideas (Hoover Institution)
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
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The End of Teachers Unions

by Terry M. Moevia Defining Ideas
Wednesday, July 18, 2012

In the next two decades, their political power will wane, and America will finally achieve meaningful K-12 reform.

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