


If you stand on the steps of a state capitol building and throw a rock (with a really strong arm), the first building you can hit has a good chance of being the headquarters of the state teachers’ union. For interest groups, proximity to the capitol is a way of displaying power and influence. The teachers’ union strives to be the closest. It wants to remind everyone that it is the most powerful interest group of all.
To see who has the most powerful digs, we actually bothered to measure just how close interest group offices are to state capitol buildings. We started with a list of the 25 most influential interest groups, as compiled by Fortune magazine. We then used Google Maps to plot the location of the state offices of those 25 interest groups and measured the distance to the capitol building.
The results are illuminating. Of the 25 most influential interest groups, the teachers’ union is the closest in 14 of the 50 states. By comparison, the AFL-CIO is the closest in seven states. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the National Federation of Independent Business are the closest in five states, each. The American Association for Justice (AAJ) - the leading organization of U.S. trial lawyers, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, or ATLA - is the closest in four states.
The teachers’ union is among the four closest interest groups in 27 states. Meanwhile, the AAJ is among the four closest in 22 states, the AARP in 20 states, and the AFL-CIO in 19 states.
In Nebraska, the state teachers’ union office is only 210 feet from the capitol building. In Pennsylvania, it is only 312 feet away. In Alabama, Delaware, and South Dakota, the teachers’ union headquarters is about 500 feet away.
If we gave four points for being closest, three for being the second closest, two for being the third closest, and one for being the fourth closest, teachers’ unions would have a total of 85 points. No other group would have more than 60 points. Only four of the 25 groups would have above 40 points, with the AAJ, the AARP, and the AFL-CIO joining the teachers’ unions in this elite group. But even among this well-heeled crowd, the teachers’ unions are way ahead.
The teachers’ unions don’t strive to be the closest because of the extra time it takes to walk or drive a few more blocks. They strive to be the closest because it is a visible display of their power and influence. It is a symbol of the connections and resources they can devote to something as trivial as having the closest office, just like the status obtained from having the best seats at a concert or a sporting event.
But much of the power of interest groups is little more than bluff. It is to their advantage to exaggerate their power and influence precisely because doing so enhances the power and influence they actually have. Yet despite all of the fear and trembling among politicos about the consequences of crossing the teachers’ unions, they can be beaten.
In fact, it is striking how often the teachers’ unions lose even with all of their resources and displays of power; in the face of union opposition, there are now 21 voucher or tax credit programs in 13 states sending students to private schools at public expense. There are more than one million students attending charter schools in the 40 states that have charter programs. Merit pay for teachers is being tried in New York, Florida, Texas, and Nashville; in addition, several new school districts are experimenting with the idea under a federal pilot program.
The teachers’ unions don’t want people to think they can lose. They want to impress folks with their prime real estate and well-heeled lobbyists. But eventually it is hard to sustain really bad ideas in public policy - and the teachers’ unions have embraced some really bad ideas. Eventually the “puffery” of well-placed offices succumbs to the substantive pursuit of good policy. In the end, the power of the teachers’ unions may be, in the words of Chairman Mao, little more than a paper tiger—or a well-placed building.
- Jay P. Greene is the Endowed Professor of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, where Jonathan Butcher is a research associate.
(american.com)