Brenda M. Diaz – Candidate for MCPS Board of Education, At-Large (Moderately MOCO Candidate Introduction Series)

This post is part of the Moderately MOCO Candidate Introduction Series. Candidates who did not receive the questionnaire via email or need more information can get access through our contact form. The information in this post was submitted directly by the candidate and does not represent the views of Moderately MOCO or its publication.

Basic Information

Political Party: Unaffiliated

Campaign Website: DiazForBOE.com

Social Media Links:
https://x.com/BrendaMDiaz4BOE
https://www.instagram.com/diaz.4.boe/
https://www.facebook.com/diaz.for.boe

Why Are You Running For Office?

I am running for the Board of Education because I want every MCPS child to experience the academic excellence that launched my life.

I grew up in the Bronx, raised by Puerto Rican parents, as a proud product of a gifted and talented program. That foundation took me to Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and made me a James Madison Fellow. I became a teacher because I believe every child deserves that same shot—and I have spent more than twenty years working to give it to them, from cooperative nursery schools to AP classrooms, ESOL to U.S. History and Government at Gaithersburg High, public and private, across D.C. and Maryland. I am also a mother of three daughters who were MCPS students.

I have seen this system from every angle. And I am not afraid to talk about it all. MCPS spends $3.78 billion a year, yet only 22% of students pass Algebra I and only 54.9% of third graders read at grade level. This is a leadership problem, not a funding problem. The achievement gap tells the full story: while 80% of white students are proficient in reading, only 48% of Black students and 34% of Hispanic students meet that bar. These are our most vulnerable children–and they are being failed while taxpayer dollars flow without diligent oversight or accountability for results. Closing that gap will be my most urgent priority.

The current board—overwhelmingly MCEA Apple Ballot-endorsed, has reduced its own business meetings from 24 to 12 per year, moved millions through consent agendas without scrutiny, and dismissed parents and communities–most recently in their decision to close one of the top three high schools in Maryland over the objections of parents, local leaders, and entire communities. I am running as an independent voice, not an MCEA-endorsed candidate, and I will not rubber-stamp decisions that hurt our children and our communities.

My platform is clear:

• Reinstitute a rigorous, knowledge-rich curriculum with explicit instruction in reading and math, bring back midterms and finals, ensure grade-appropriate assignments, and protect gifted and talented programs, such as compacted math and cohorted ELA.
• Restore safety by bringing back School Resource Officers, enforcing the Student Code of Conduct, and passing a Teachers’ Bill of Rights—modeled on laws in Alabama and Louisiana, the only two states to surpass their pre-pandemic academic scores—which restores classroom authority to teachers by setting clear discipline standards.
• Demand fiscal accountability through an independent Inspector General, ending the rubber-stamp consent agenda, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is tied to student outcomes.
• Strengthen parental voice by preserving neighborhood schools, respecting and including the insight of community watchdog organizations, and insisting on genuine transparency so families have a real voice.

Our children deserve better. I am running to deliver it.

What Is The Biggest Issue Facing Voters In This Race?

The biggest issue is academic failure—and the board’s unwillingness to honestly confront it. MCPS is one of the wealthiest school districts in the country, yet the majority of its Black and Hispanic students cannot read or do math at grade level. That is a moral crisis hiding behind a budget debate.

The county council’s recent budget fight—driven in large part by MCEA’s push to be fully funded—put taxpayers in the middle of a political struggle that had nothing to do with student outcomes. And when the cuts came, Superintendent Taylor made a cynical choice: threaten front-facing classroom positions—teachers, counselors, the people our children actually see every day—instead of cutting the bloat that exists in Central Office and in no-bid contracts that have never faced real scrutiny. That is not a budget strategy. That is using teachers and children as political pawns.

Voters deserve a board member who will demand that every dollar be tied to measurable results for students, not union priorities. The consent agenda must end. An independent Inspector General must be established. And the board must meet more than once a month to do its job.

Underlying all of it is a question of who the board actually works for: parents and students, or the special interests that endorse its members. That is what this race is really about.

What Experience Best Prepares You For This Role?

More than twenty years in the classroom—from nursery school to AP, ESOL to U.S. History and Government, public and private, across D.C. and Maryland—gives me something no other candidate in this race has: the view from inside the classroom every single day.

I have written US History, Government, Spanish, and Latin American History curriculum. I have served six years as an MCEA building representative, so I understand how union influence operates from the inside. I coached JV softball at Gaithersburg and Wootton High. I have taught in cooperative nursery schools, run my own farm and forest outdoor learning program, and currently teach middle and high school Social Studies at Fusion Global Academy. I am a James Madison Fellow and Buchwald Fellow, trained by Harvard Business School’s Case Method Project, and selected twice for the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmark seminars.

I also know MCPS as a parent. My eldest daughter graduated from Poolesville’s Humanities program after attending French Immersion at Maryvale Elementary and Gaithersburg Middle. My middle daughter also attended the French Immersion program and is graduating this year from Quince Orchard High School. My youngest is homeschooled. I have navigated this system from every angle, and I know exactly where it is failing families.

What Would You Like Voters To Know About You Personally?

I am a proud City of Gaithersburg resident who is genuinely invested in this community. Service is at the core of who I am—whether tutoring teenage mothers so they can meet graduation requirements, running an outdoor learning program for homeschooled children, or working with Richard Montgomery IB students on revising their research papers. This is not a stepping stone. This is my community, and I am here to serve it.

I am bilingual and have always believed that MCPS’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths, which is precisely why the achievement gap is so personal to me. As a Puerto Rican woman who made it from the Bronx to Georgetown because a gifted and talented program gave me a shot, I cannot accept a system that writes off its Black and Hispanic children year after year and calls it equity.

I am also a founder. Heart of Joy Learning, my farm-and-forest program for homeschooled children, grew out of my conviction that children learn best through real experiences, real books, and real relationships with adults who know their content. That same conviction drives everything in my platform.

I am someone who genuinely loves this country’s founding ideals. I teach them, I live by them, and I believe they are as urgent today as they were in 1776. Thomas Jefferson wrote that an educated citizenry is essential for self-government—that the people themselves are the only safe depositories of democracy, and that their minds must be cultivated to keep it. That is not an abstract principle to me. That is why I am running. The will of parents and communities—not unions or special interests—must drive public education.

I will meet with any constituent. I will answer emails. I will show up. If you want a board member who will sit quietly and go along, I am not your candidate. If you want someone who will ask the hard questions, read the contracts, and fight for your children—I am exactly that person.

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