I didn't read through all these posts, but our town has PTA (elementary) and PTO (middle) and I have been president of both. And to tell you the truth, most of the officers are the same. It is the same group of parents volunteering and supporting the children. At a local level, the only difference that I see is that in middle school it is too hard to get members to come to the meetings. That is why they are a PTO. However, at a State level, PTA really does do a lot with lobbying for various things. Their guide is and training are also wonderful especially for new people starting out. It was much easier to do PTO after doing PTA. Either organization have very strong points. As long as they are in the best interest of the children and suite the individual needs of the school, it shouldn't matter. Good luck to you all.
I know this is late, but I just wanted to say what a great article I think that is. I've been a PTA president and a PTO president (we move because of my husband's military career) and that's the first article i've ever seen that really hits the nail right on the head. Our PTO does great work just like our PTA did.
We have problems just surviving...so many of our parents are holding down 2 jobs, so many head a 1-parent household. I see our Booster (PTO) organization needs to be as simple and straightforward as possible. We run on very little funds, and need to keep it that way as we are in an economically very depressed area. Also, quite a few (not me) of our parents are super-conservative and would pull support from our organization if they felt it was alligned with some of the PTA goals. It makes no sense at all for our group to become a PTA. I also would worry about how that might affect our getting much-needed grants. On our own, I feel we are more accountable for our goals and accomplishments.
I am the PTA prez at my daughters elementary school, I am also a member of the PTO at my sons middle school. The first thing I want to say is that we are all here for the children. I commend anyone PTA or PTO who is volunteering and making a difference in the lives of children that is the upmost importance. Our school district has a PTA-PTO roundtable meeting once a month in which we all try to share ideas and help each other out. However to PTA's credit,I found that when I went to my first ever PTO meeting in the fall(first year in middle school), they asked for upcoming topics to discuss at the next meeting. I stated the upcoming initiative I-728 that would be on the ballot about student achievement would be a good topic. None of them had ever heard of it. Because I am also PTA I was able to explain the initiative that would impact all students in the state of Washington, if passed to the group. I was also able to give statisics of how this would impact our city and surrounding cities. This was all material that I had received at the PTA leadership in August. So I can see the importance of not only knowing what is happening at each individual school, but also what is happening at a state and national level. We want to encourage legislation that will benefit all children .
I will confuse you even more. We are an "APT" and the HS. is an "APTS" (S=students). Why? Some years ago someone decided that $.95 per memeber was to much to pay to the national PTA orginization. That would require minimun menberships around $5 per member. So they formed the APT with $.05 going to the "district counsel" and $.95 staying in the school group. Allowing membership at $1. Additionaly we would bennifit from the good PTA press at the time.
I'm coming late to this debate, and I'm a little confused. Here in New York City, we're all called either PTAs or PAs (most have dropped the "teacher" part). We're governed by regulations from the City's Board of Education, so we've all got the same status and we're all linked. But as far as I know, none of us belong to the national or state PTA. So does this mean we're all laboring under false pretenses?
I don't know much about the national PTA, but if it is trying to use the strength of parents' numbers in this country to get more support for public education, maybe we here in NYC should be joining it. Because of the lack of resources for public education, parents are forced to be more involved in every aspect of schools than ever before--at least that's the case here--and it seems to me we need to be involved in setting policy as well. The unfortunate reality is that education policy is all political, so we are forced to be political to have any real influence.
