Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Teachers’ unions are increasingly scrutinized in education policy, but there exists limited evidence that establishes their causal influence or the mechanisms through which they affect district inputs and student outcomes. This paper addresses the gap by examining a key channel: school board representation. We rely on a new identification strategy based on ballot order in school board elections to overcome the empirical challenge of distinguishing between the effect of unions on districts from district conditions that are more amenable to unions’ influence. Preliminary first stage results document that a union-aligned candidate randomly assigned to the top of the ballot leads to significant increases in union representation on the school board. Moreover, preliminary evidence suggests that this heightened union strength in turn results in more favorable working conditions for teachers, including fewer required instructional days and steeper pay gradients.