I read all these messages with great interest. One question for you PTA people out there - it seems like one complaint is that the PTOs are just about fundraising and the PTA provides great programs and wonderful things for kids. How do you actually pay for these programs without fundraising? Must be quite a trick,and if you can teach me how, I'd gladly join the PTA.

We are a PTO because we cannot afford to send money to a national organization regardless of the many wonderful things they may or may not do for us. We've given up collecting dues because no one will join.All the money we earn has gone to programs for the kids.

Marion

I have found in the past that the PTA in the state and national level do not get involved in local issues so if you are looking for support from the PTA on this local issue chances are you won't get it.

I am looking for some information on the PTA-vs-PTO issue. We are going to a brand new school. We barely got into the facilities in time to start the school year. The principal is from a school that had a PTO, I come from a school that had a PTA. They have nominated me for President, but we have not decided the PTA-vs-PTO issue as of yet. I like the idea of being individual and not having to follow all of the strict rules from the Association. My problem is that there have already been some issues raised about the curriculum at the school being unconstitutional(religious content). I want our children protected and what if we need the voice in the political arena? Does the PTO carry as much weight as the PTA with the district and state levels of government? I also wondered about the tax issue. Can anyone help me?

In the postings above from PTA supporters I read things like "Schools are political arenas..." and "We make our treasurers accountable when they embezzle money from our organization"(paraphrase). I have no doubt that this is a frequent thing to watch out for.

Any parent who supports traditional family values and traditional moral norms or any parent who is not an ultra left-wing liberal supporter of the Democrat Party should be very clear on the political agenda of the National PTA. It is your right and obligation to know where your money is going and for what political causes. The PTA is right up there in league with the NEA and AFT in their fight to prevent any kind of meaningful school reform from taking place.
Everything they do is politically motivated and very left-wing.

If you don't believe me, just go the the press releases section of their own web site: www.pta.org. You can find, for example who the speakers of their last DC Conference were. It's a "Who's Who" of Socialist politicos and Clinton flunkies. I've pasted them below for your convenience. I don't see any experts on School Reform Issues down there and rest assured you never will.

What you've got below as speakers at the PTA conference are the two most liberal Democrats in Congress, Ben Cohen, who is a Socialist,pot-smoking ex-hippie from Vermont (I used to live there), and Bill Clinton's most vulgar attack dog and critic-killer and his wife, the token conservative. Don't think that your dues money is going to much more than lining the pockets of left-wing Democrat politicians, because it isn't. And while the article was informative, I have to say that it deliberately chose not to expose the real political stripes and agenda of the PTA. As the commercial goes: "This is not your father's PTA". The PTA, G.L.A.D. and AFL-CIO are three peas in a pod and it's only fair that people know what they're joining. If you like multiculturalism, diversity and identity, ie. divisive politics, politically correct groupthink, mob-like coercion, government monopoly and antagonism toward religious based moral values, radical environmentalism, gay activist indoctrination at school etc. then by all means join the PTA. But,if you're more independently minded in your thinking, and don't consider Che Guevarra to be a great political hero, I suggest that you don't.

(From the PTA's web site)
Speakers Throughout the Conference Include:
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) and Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
Department of Education Assistant Secretary Mario Moreno
Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club
Ben Cohen, co-founder Ben & Jerry's Famous Ice Cream and President of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
Stan Collender, Senior Vice President with Fleishman-Hillard
Mary Matalin and James Carville.

I have truly enjoyed my day off today and spent a good part of it reading responses on this forum. Some pleasant and some not so pleasant. I believe that if all parent groups were as dedicated as the ones being heard from on this topic I would have to say our children are truly in good hands. My comments on PTO's have been stern only because of the ones I have previously had to deal with locally. I have tried the past six years to help them organize and create a better group for their schools. I have never put pressure on them to join PTA but to help create a better organization for their own specific needs at their school and for their community. They were invited to the workshops our district put on and were made accessible to just about all the information that we had. The only things we weren't allowed to give them were copies of our handbooks. My one and only concern were the children in the schools. I saw many difficult situations happening in these PTO schools and parents complaining because they had no where to go. I tried to council them and help in any way I could but it was very difficult because the parents who were officers of the PTO were very much in control. This is the type of organization I try to keep others from becoming. I have seen money spent (thousands of dollars) from fundraisers on teacher's salaries, personal items for teachers, luncheons (5-8 a year) for officers only, and not a dime spent on the children in the school. Don't get me wrong, the money spent on the teachers were justified to some extent, but the children were not directly benefited at all in any aspect of the fundraising except to be exploited in many ways in order to raise the money in the first place. My views of PTA seem to be quite strong for more than one reason. I don't like some things that are going on at the National level and my intent is to rally and try to change those things. If I can't I chalk it up to lack of what the majority want to do and I move on to something else. Nobody will agree 100% ever on anything. But I do not feel the need to abandon an organization such as PTA just because I disagree with some things they are doing. I do not agree that our NPTA President should be traveling and appearing with Tipper Gore either during a hotly contested election such as this. I am a Republican but I look at all candidates equally and fairly on all issues. If she is doing so as Ginny Markell, that is one thing, but to be doing it as Ginny Markell,NPTA Presiden, that is a totally different thing all together. I believe we need to get back to the issues that truly affect our children and back off everything else. I agree with many who posted here that the dues should not be increased until these other expenses are cut from the budget. I don't like to be treated like I am ignorant to what is actually going on. I know and I see many things that disturb me. Not all of it has to do with PTA but with our government and school boards. I want to make things better for all children and I do not want to see public schools go by the wayside. But we need to clean up all of the mess before we see results of education being America's number one priority again. Many elected officials say it is their number one priority just to get elected and then it is pushed to the back burner when they are in office. It is our responsibility as parents to stand up and make them accountable for what they promised us. Thank you for allowing me to state my opinion and I look forward to sharing with all parent groups far and wide. Keep up the good work Tim. All parent groups are lucky to have you in their corner.
Anna in Louisiana

[This message has been edited by Anna in Louisiana (edited 09-21-2000).]

Bea,
I agree with you on your response. It should not matter which group we belong to as long as we belong!! There are so many children that do not have parents that can volunteer their time. To me that is what makes what our parent/teacher groups (no matter what you are) do all the more special. Those kids long to see a smiling face and receive a smile/hug in return. School is school (as it should be) but we need to make it fun as well. If we don't-we will loose these kids. It is up to us as adults to help build a better school for our children. They are the future. thank you for listening. (Reading)