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

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

Winning in Baltimore traces how BMORE teacher union organizing placed racial equity at the center of public education advocacy. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, it explains how Maryland’s long-term underfunding of predominantly Black students in Baltimore violates adequacy standards and persists through policy shifts. The narrative connects court-backed funding inequities, the Jim Crow legacy, disinvestment, school closures tied to underperformance metrics, and public mobilizations following major tragedies to show how collective action reframes education funding as a racial justice issue.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Historical Context: Baltimore and the Disinvestment in Black Education

Public school strikes and inequitable education funding

Jim Crow roots of underfunding and ongoing disparities

Commission recommendations and policy halts after crises

School closures, bonds, and metrics like under-enrollment

Public outrage and the impact of civil unrest

UC Berkeley Berkeley Review of Education Title Winning in Baltimore: The Story of How BMORE Put Racial Equity at the Center of Teacher Union Organizing Permalink [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61t7s3cs](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61t7s3cs) Journal Berkeley Review of Education, 9(1) Authors Shiller, Jessica Caucus, BMORE Publication Date 2019 DOI 10.5070/B89146427 [eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Running head: WINNING IN Winning in Baltimore: The Story of How BMORE Put Racial Equity at the Center of Teacher Union Organizing Jessica Shiller 1 Towson University BMore Caucus Baltimore Movement of Rank-And-File Educators Historical Context: Baltimore and the Disinvestment in Black Education 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 our 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. Corey Gaber (2017), a teacher in Baltimore City schools, wrote in Medium: “When adding up this gross underfunding of BCPSS, which is nothing short of the crime of theft being committed against the predominantly Black youth who attend these schools, we reach a very rough education debt to Baltimore City of 3.2 BILLION DOLLARS!” Appointed commissions have recommended equity in school funding across the state. However, even when a process to phase in millions of extra dollars was introduced in the early 2000s, the state halted the effort, claiming insufficient funds to provide equitable school funding because of the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, every spring, an assembly of hundreds of parents, teachers, administrators, and advocates rally for additional funding from the state to ensure that Baltimore schools can keep their doors open. In reality, 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. There were Black schools, but because they did not receive public money, they had crumbling facilities, second- or third-hand books, and poorly compensated teachers (Baum, 2010) . In this way, governments “reasserted Black inferiority and 1 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: [Jessica Shiller.](Jessica Shiller. Email: jshiller@towson.edu)[ Email:](Jessica Shiller. Email: jshiller@towson.edu)[ jshiller@towson.edu](Jessica Shiller. Email: jshiller@towson.edu) Berkeley Review of Education Vol. 9, No. 1 proclaimed white supremacy the cultural and economic law of the land and the preferred social order”(Rooks, 2018, p. 51) . Not much has changed since. Nowadays, Black school systems still suffer from unequal funding and have inadequate facilities, like in Baltimore, where they cannot even provide heat in the winter for the students. Part of the problem is that since the Jim Crow era, the state still has not invested in the city and its Black community. A clear example of this occurred when Spiro Agnew was governor of Maryland. Riots followed after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, and Agnew summoned Black leaders to the state capitol to demand that they help restore order, but he offered nothing to help the city or its Black communities (Baum, 2010) . Agnew’s lack of investment reveals clear disdain for the city of Baltimore. Interestingly, Agnew went on to become Richard

FAQs

Why does the article argue that education funding inequity in Baltimore is racialized?

It links long-term unequal distribution of education resources to racial lines, citing persistent underfunding of Baltimore City Public Schools and ongoing harms such as inadequate facilities and unequal opportunities for Black students.

How did the Jim Crow period shape later funding disparities described in the article?

The article states that during Jim Crow, Black residents paid taxes in Maryland but received little or no public investment for schools, leading to crumbling facilities, substandard materials, and poorly compensated teachers—effects that it says largely persist today.

What role did public mobilization and major events play in the organizing and urgency described?

It explains that teacher strikes and community rallies sought attention from state legislators for additional funding, and that public outrage after events like Freddie Gray’s death intensified pressure amid broader disinvestment and police brutality realities.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man