I have found this article to be very interesting. One thing that really disturbs me is that PTA President Ginny Markell would decide to go on a 7 state tour with Tipper Gore in the height of an election. I am a registered Independent and I think this is not what a non-for-profit organization should be doing. If I were a Republican PTA member, I would send my PTA card back to National Headquarters.

The other thing that is begining to bother me about PTA is the amount of money wasted on postage and mailing 'crap' out that mostly sits in peoples closets. I just received a mailing the other day, that went out to the whole state of California with 11 cents additional postage. When I e-mailed the State PTA office, they returned an e-mail message, thanking me for my expertise. There was not a word of ..oh we are sorry and this will not happen in the future. This also happens with National, they sent one of those big heavy mailings out Priority Mail....a lot more expensive than non-profit rates.

PTA wastes too much money on mailing out material that is not used by most people and using expensive stock to print on. Then they need to raise dues. I can really see there are not 'business people' running the administrative end of the business.

I currently serve as a Unit and a Council President. After this year, I cannot see myself supporting an organization that continually wastes it's member money and has a political agenda that leans towards an affiliation with a political party.

I found this article to be really eye opening and will be shown to members of my community.

I would feel a lot better if Ginny Markell came to her senses and stayed out of politics.

I am the Vice President of our PTO. We were a PTA and chose to switch.
#1. There is a post listed above that states " but they are far from being nationally organized and far from competing with PTA. Exactly, we are not COMPETING.
#2. The strongest points I have heard regarding PTA remain with the lobbying issue. I am a strong believer in the fact that because I have chosen to be involved in a PTO does not mean that I have abandoned children everywhere. I have a very real impact when I exercise my right to vote for local, county, state and national officials. I make informed choices for individuals who have children at the forefront. If each and every one of us made sure we were registered to vote and did same on election day just possibly the issue of lobbying would be mute.
#3 Regarding the resources that were mentioned provided by the PTA. I find that personally comical considering the fact the only time we EVER heard from the PTA was regarding $$$$. Dues are due, convention, awards night, etc. It seems there are quite a few excellent programs run by the PTA but as the article mentioned you need to make a decision if these programs out weigh the benefit of keeping the dollars within your school. I KNOW we made the right choice for our school. Does that make me selfish or uncaring towards the country's children, no as I stated above make some real changes and vote for politicans who know that EDUCATION is KEY for our future. FOR ALL CHILDREN.
#4 A personal observation regarding the posts to this topic is that I feel the PTA is doing a wonderful job of making sure they instill within its members that if you are not a part of their association you are just turning your wheels in the sand. I resent those implications. I personally have witnessed local and county PTA members who use scare tatics in order to keep you within the ranks. I find it appalling. Not once when we were in the decision making stages of whether to stay a PTA or switch to a PTO did any PTA member mentioned the children. The first thing used was the fact that the non-profit status would no longer be allowed to be used. Secondly the fact that anything your local may have (most importantly it seemed was the $$) was property of the PTA. Well from our stand point that was very easy to do considering the fact that after dues were paid there wasn't much else left.
I obviously have my opinions regarding the PTA and I am proud to voice my opinions.

P.S. Tim wonderful article not only in content but in thought provoking debates here on the discussion forum.

This has been an interesting topic to read. As co-president of my children's current PTC as well as past treasurer of another schools PTA and as a new member of a PAT (Parent Advisory Committee) at my daughters Jr. High School I find it quite ironic that the PTA people feel the need to defend so staunchly the PTA. Over the past six years I have been involved in both organizations and felt the PTA was adequate in that you had organizational support for the officers, however felt that paying dues to a national organization that has lobbyist in Washington lobbying for very controversial subjects that may not go along with the local sentiment of each group was wrong. Parents join a Parent Teacher Group to help at each school without political affiliation. We donate our time and energy to enhance the educational development of each child's education on the grassroots level. We keep our money local and help our community to thrive. Our group donates to local charitable causes and donates nationwide to relief efforts for flood victims, etc. By focusing our attentions in a smaller scope we can begin to make a difference by setting a good example for the next generation to follow. To call those members of an organization selfish or shallow because they are not PTA is quite short-sighted and I feel shows that the PTA has become so huge and political that it has lost sight of what counts.

Thanks for letting me say my piece. All Parent Groups out there keep up the good work no matter what your name. Our Kids need you!
AA

I've been a PTA president for 2 years now and I thought the article was good. There are 3 PTOs and 2 PTAs in our town and we get along fine. We choose PTA and we're happy with it. We still working on several different things with the other schools. The last part of the article was just what we think, we're all doing this for the same reason. It was nice to get the magazine, I liked it.

Kathy I don't understand what line we are crossing over. The 8 PTO presidents in our town meet once a month and work together on a lot of projects. (even did a school committee candidates night) Is there something wrong with that? If we were all in the PTA we'd be spending more than $4000 to belong to the PTA. What would we get for that $4000 that we aren't getting now? Maybe there aren't many PTO people responding here because the PTA just isn't a big deal to us. I never would think about the PTA except for the article and reading this chat thing.