Winning in Baltimore: The Story of How BMORE Put Racial Equity at the Center of Teacher Union Organizing

Public school teachers around the country are engaged in strikes. They walked out of their classrooms and schools to gain attention from state legislators, and not just for better salaries and benefits for themselves (although most Americans agree that teachers need better pay). Teachers are calling attention to a sticky problem in American public education funding: long-term inequitable distribution of funding that predictably falls along racial lines. Maryland, just like every other state, faces this kind of inequity. For example, the state has consistently underfunded Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPSS) in violation of their constitutional definition of adequacy, upheld by the courts multiple times. The funding inequity dates back to the Jim Crow period, during which Blacks paid taxes in Maryland but received nothing in return to fund their schools. For many years, the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) argued for more funding and increased salaries for its members. It was so committed to the latter that it negotiated a contract that included merit pay. Neoliberal school reform advocates across the country hailed the 2010 contract that promoted school choice as "progressive." However, many teachers were unhappy with this contract negotiation and thought it ignored many of the issues that were important to teachers. This discontent was not lost on a small group of teachers who decided to come together informally. They began by learning. They read common texts, visited union caucuses in other cities (e.g., Caucus of Rank and File Educators in Chicago), and regularly discussed their vision for Baltimore schools. Through this process, they built durable relationships with each other, reached out to others, and began to identify leaders among them. This group called themselves BMORE (Baltimore Movement of Rank and File Educators). [Co-written with the BMORE Caucus.]