Today, a conversation with Diamont\u233\u Brown, the 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.