We've had some similar issues arise in the past, and our PTO's usual reponse was to make every effort to educate our parents when the public hearings would be, how to contact their representatives, what the issues were, etc., without actually taking a stated position on the issue.
When we have publicly taken a position, it was in favor of something our entire parent body supported--increasing funding for the schools, especially teacher salaries, because ours in the county are out of line with the city schools just blocks away--without getting into the aspects our members didn't all agree about, like whether to increase taxes or find the funding another way. Fine line-walking, but it seemed to work. And since individual parents always made public statements to present their own opinions, just getting them to the appropriate forums was useful. You can do a lot of education on the issues without getting past factual material.
I am not in agreement with Shari. In Texas, any 501c3 can support or reject any political POSITION. (Candidates are off-limits!) School district employees are only allowed to put forth information concerning bond elections. The information that they give must not be biased in any way. Some school districts were recently slapped on the wrist for "leaning too far in favor of bond elections".This might be the reason some superintendents are going so far out of their way to appear nonpartisan. Making employees leave a room when discussions about bond elections are occurring is probably infringing on thier civil rights.
Your participation in this issue can also be regulated by what state you are in. In Texas, schools are not allowed to discuss bond elections, but the PTO was. So any school employees had to leave the room when the bond was discussed, but PTO reps could present the proposed upgrades to the school *without giving an indorsement*. At our school, we pushed a "get out the vote" program, encouraged people to vote.
Check to see what the state regulations are for your area - you might find that it isn't forbidden to inform parents. Just don't tell people how to vote!
any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."
This issue has nothing to do with a political campaign or any political candidate. The whole matter of a referendum is done by the Board of Ed (who are volunteers) and not Town council politicians. Becuase Tax payer money will be spent if the referendum passes, is why the town needs to vote on the issue.
I don't know how you feel about the referendum, only that your town is divided by it. Are most of the townsfolk with school age children for it and most of the people who don't have school age kids against it?
At this point I think you and your board members do need to have some type of conversation about this. Pretending the whole matter does not exist is not going to serve you. Plus you are not in violation of the IRS law.
Serendipity - the referendum really has the town split. We (the board) do not discuss it among ourselves and if we did I'm sure that we would be divided as well. We need the financial support of this community to run a sucessful PTO and picking a side in this matter is going to burn bridges. However, now not picking a side is hurting our relationship with the administration.
The actual wording from the IRS states that..
"No substantial amount of the activities of the corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation and this corporation shall not intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."
So, I guess as long as you dont spend much time on the matter you could get involved legally.
I'm interested in hearing how others have handled this situation as well. We have a state bill that will be coming up next year that I am in full support of. Our PTO has been asked to get the word out as well as distributing pamphlets to the community. Our bylaws do not have any wording as far as being non-partisan. The Articles of Incorporation have the standard IRS wording regarding a 501(c)(3)...sorry don't have it in front of me now.
