Hey, I saw my name!!! I really and truly am trying to get into another forum but haven't quite made it yet. I've been without internet access now for almost two months!
Anyhow, here's some info if you are interested. I won't go too in depth regarding Dave P's post other than on our state board, we have strong republicans, some very religious people, an ex-green berret, an ex-principal, a college student, a few liberals, men and women, stay at home moms, single moms and working moms and a couple of democrats. (our board of managers meetings can get rather interesting!) It is anything but one-sided. Yes, national did do a tour with Tipper Gore to address issues (one their most likely regretting) but have never, EVER supported a campaign. If we had, the IRS would have been all over us. The rest of his post is his opinion.

Secondly, the schools are not paying their dues to State and National, the parents are. If the formation of a non-school affiliated PTA is being presented, parents would pay their dues to state and national, funneled first through the local PTA. Here in NV it is $4 per person total now (We pay $35 to belong to the Boy Scouts).
As for people following blindly, it is a problem not just in the PTA but how many people vote for a public official just because they recognize their names? National PTA has hundreds of positions that may be related to one topic or another politically. Currently they are doing 5cents makes sense, asking for 5 cents of every federal dollar to be spent on education and Doors open after school- creating and strengthening after school programs. These fall within guidelines. Vouchers is one that is more politically charged. Some members agree, some don't. I don't agree with all the positions but if I did, I'd likely be some sort of Stepford Wife!
The bottom line is dues are paid to operate. Again, we pay $35 a year for dues to the Boy Scouts. That doesn't include individual den dues, awards or the magazine. We pay more for camp and we also work our tales off selling popcorn and candy bars. Girl Scouts too.
Your PTO Presidents shouldn't be so defensive unless they are afraid that the PTA poses an individual threat to their own organization. Again, they can co-exist and accomplish different things. And since this PTA wouldn't be school affiliated, it would be the choice of the parent to join. If they don't like it, they won't join but why can't you give them the option? Sounds like a perfect world to me!

Thanks for all the GREAT input. We have 3300 kids in our district and lots of volunteers. The formation of the PTA is very new. The issue is not the formation, but the spreading of mis-information leading to conclusions that are not correct.

We have a PTO Presidents Council that is opposed to the idea for the mere fact that they are not in support of the PTO at all. They are looking to divide the town on many issues affecting our schools.

Wow! And here all along I thought we were just in it for the glory and the all the oodles and oodles of money we make doing this.

Couple things:

1. Mum24kids couldn't have said it better. If you put a group of local PTAers in the same room with a group of local PTOers, you would not be able to tell the difference. Thanks mum!

2. DaveP -- Interesting message. Appreciate the kudos. We try.

Tim

I would agree with most of what Mum said here.

Having sat on a State PTA board though I would add that they are far more political then most people think and very one sided on those politics. Something I completely disagree with! It is one thing to support issues and bills it is another to support campaigns. It is one thing to do the will of your membership it is another to do your own will and be damned what your membership may or may not want. It is one thing to actually analyize issues and try to present legislation to fix real problems, it is another to support a position becuase you "think" it will solve a problem when all the facts point to another direction and because it is the politically correct thing to do. My experience with state and national PTA is they tend to enjoy a good ole boy process where only people of like mind on anything is allowed to participate. They long ago stopped being anything other than a political tool to present an agenda that most people at the grass roots disagree with. Now at the local level a PTA operates essentially no differently than a PTO and the same people that run PTOs are running PTAs.

I can go on and on here! I dont rose color things as most people that are regulars here know, and I wont rose color my opinion on the PTA as a national organization. It has become counter purposed to what the organization was formed to be and has become nothing more than an agenda driven political organization for the presentation of a single view on education that IMHO has gotten us into a lot of trouble! They didnt start out this way, but they have become what they are. If the PTO becomes thus, I will opt away from them too, but the nature of the PTO, the concept itself says it shall not. I will resist to my last breath any effort to create state and federal PTO organization, because it will provide a standard process for local organizations so they can perform more efficiently! I like the idea of people at grass roots levels making their own mistakes! I like the chaos of not knowing what to do next! I like the empowerment of people to decide for themselves what mistakes they will make!

PTO Today and the NPN live up to the ideals that I treasure! If they didnt I would not post here! I would become their most ardent opponent! But I do not fear this ever becoming the case. Tim has done a wonderful job on creating the PTO Today as a conduit to prevent the errors of the PTA. An outlet for people with problems and successes to share, to learn from, to help others through. The staff of PTO Today is to be applauded for all they have created and work hard daily to improve in directions that are informative and not dictorial.

Dave

Is it true that a PTA is only interested in driving funds in their pockets and increasing membership?

Well, put like that, I'd have to say no--they're not ONLY interested in that. But they are interested in that--just like a PTO is interested in raising money and increasing membership.

Many people will tell you that at least part of the reason that they are PTO is because all their money can stay within their school. With PTA, part of the dues go out of your own school to a local, state and/or national PTA. Those monies are used to fund certain programs, like Reflections (arts program), and advocacy/lobbying efforts, among other things. Some people decide that those monies that go out of the school are very significant to them, and they do not get enough benefit from them. A lot depends on how active your state PTA is and how interested your officers are in advocacy issues. MichelleB, someone who posts a lot on here from Nevada, seems to have a very active and supportive PTA in her state, with some great programs. Others can't even manage to get their state to provide them with membership cards for their members, let alone any reasonable amount of support.

And one example on programs--Reflections is a great program, but how many people actually participate? At least one school in our area last year didn't bother with it because they couldn't get anyone to run it. And many of the others that advertised the program had very low participation (as in less than 5%). So I wouldn't join PTA just to be part of Reflections, for example.

PTA units can be much more structured and rigid than PTOs. Your state provides you with a set of bylaws, and you generally can't change them too much. In some cases, that may be good--every now and then on this board, you see some cases where PTOs have struggled because of bad or no bylaws; some structure might have helped them. On the other hand, setting up bylaws isn't necessarily brain surgery--many schools can and have set up very good structures that give them much more flexibility than PTA, and work well for them.

As for advocacy--some people say that they don't agree with the positions National PTA supports--vouchers are a good example of a controversial topic--and that's why they don't want to be part of the PTA. But I think most parents would support the vast majority of the positions they have taken. A lot of PTAs gloss over the advocacy stuff, though--if you want to find out what the PTA supports, you need to dig around on your own. I've seen very few PTAs who make it a point to publish PTA positions on different things to their local membership, which is another reason why people don't think it's worth the money. I would be willing to bet that most people who belong to a PTA could not tell you what positions their state or the national PTA has on many issues or candidates, and therefore have no idea what their money is supporting. So do they allow their money to go there because they just blindly trust that the PTA will do what is best for them? Yes--you would be amazed at how many people that applies to.

Anyway, to set up a new PTA, I'd want to know exactly what benefits people would be getting from that. It would have to be something that your individual PTOs can't provide, IMO. You might want to point out that any individual can join the PTA for a relatively nominal cost, if it is really important to them.

I believe that if you put a bunch of PTA and PTO people in a room together, you're going to find that they all have the same basic concerns for kids and ways of doing things. The day to day operations of a parent group within a school usually aren't too different between the two organizations. So, I'm sure that some people were very defensive about introducing the PTA because the implication is that the PTO is not doing enough, or not doing a good job at whatever they are doing, on their own.

Hope this helps provide some fodder for discussion for your group.

I need help. I am the PTO president for an elementary school here in town. We have a number of PTO presidents that sit on a PTO Presidents Council that meets once a month with the Superintendent of Schools to discuss matters. Today a parent forming a district wide PTA came to present her reasoning behind the PTA formation. Why was everyone from the PTO's so defensive about her forming a PTA? Is it true that a PTA is only interested in driving funds in their pockets and increasing membership?