After a hard-fought battle that was contested by the outgoing leadership, the social justice caucus of the Baltimore Teacher’s Union won their recent election. Diamonte Brown, who was a teacher at Booker T. Washington Middle School, is now the union president along with a slate of her colleagues. The caucus organized around several principles, including:
1. We stand for a union that organizes teachers, responds to their concerns, practices democracy, and uses activism to fight for social justice.
2. We respect meaningful teaching and learning. Teachers and students alike deserve opportunities to grow and equitable assessments of our performance.
3. We owe our students rich, holistic educational experiences that support them as individuals with unique backgrounds and talents. We know that these experiences are impossible without a better resourced environment. We know that a strong contract allows teachers to fully invest themselves in their work.
4. We work to amplify the power of teachers, parents and students in the decision making process at the school, district and state level.
5. We will work to counteract Baltimore’s history of disenfranchising people of color by intentionally promoting the voices and leadership of black and brown teachers within our group.
6. We will advocate for policies that address the social and economic challenges of our neighborhoods and city.
BMORE caucus put racial equity at the center of their organizing in a city that is majority Black. They intentionally “created as a space to empower and further leadership by educators of color.” For the BMORE Caucus, this is integral to their work, and recognition that some of the neoliberal teacher recruitment policies have privileged white teachers. In a Black city, work needs to be done to ensure that the teaching force reflects the students and communities they serve.
