Today, a conversation with Diamonté Brown, the new president of the Baltimore Teachers Union. She was first elected last spring in a close and contentious race to lead the 7,000-member union of teachers and school para-professionals. Her victory, which was officially certified in July after an investigation by the American Federation of Teachers, ended the long tenure of Marietta English, who was seeking her seventh 3-year term as BTU president.
Ms. Brown ran at the top of a coalition called The Union We Deserve. She has pledged to improve accountability, engagement among union members, and to promote social justice.
A former teacher at Booker T. Washington Middle School, Ms. Brown now leads a union of teachers and school para-professionals who are working with a shrinking population of students, in the context of a deep political divide among lawmakers over funding for schools throughout the state. She joins us in studio A to discuss the present state of the union, and the school system improvements its members are striving for.
This program was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page; you can watch the video here.
