Baltimore Movement of Rank and File Educators was formed in response to the annuall threat of school closure, lack of resources and narrow priorities of the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU). Although members of BMORE attest that components of BTU’s advocacy are strong, such as the high pay, they felt that many of their requests for support were constantly ignored. (Schiller, 2019, pp. 2-3). Baltimore educators wanted a teacher’s
union that prioritized social justice and supported, advocated and amplified the needs of the Black community. The beginnings of BMORE focused on relationship building between a small number of Baltimore teachers, with a focus on reading common texts. “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.” (Schiller, 2019, p. 3). BMORE prioritized Black leadership and the casual relationships created were instrumental in implementing organizing strategies. BMORE was also aware that uprooting the Baltimore school system meant that organizing would have to occur at every level; access to leadership positions were essential in order to change BTU from a service union to a social justice union. This power expansion would have to occur strategically; they did not want to lose the leadership of Black educators. BMORE collected the signatures needed to amend the BTU constitution so that voting was more accessible, attended school board meetings, and recruited Black teachers in the district (Schiller, 2019, p. 3). This proved to be a huge component of challenging the system, as BTU leadership had been the same for years, reaching only a small portion of the electorate: in fact, “only 1200 of 6000 members voted in the 2016 election, giving then-president Marietta English her eighth term in the position” (Schiller, 2019, p. 3). By making voting more accessible, the BMORE candidate defeated the previous BTU president in 2019, meaning that BMORE finally gained accessibility to leadership from both from the grassroots side and the top-down component.

See more at: https://www.bmorecaucus.org