Parent Groups, Politics & Satan
Man, the fur is really flying in Utah over a high-profile effort to bring school vouchers to the state. From the looks of it, the pros and the cons are running an ad and PR and consultants war ahead of a big upcoming vote. Lots of passion on both sides.
Man,
, th
, the fur is really flying in Utah over a high-profile effort to bring school vouchers to the state. From the looks of it, the pros and the cons are running an ad and PR and consultants war ahead of a big upcoming vote. Lots of passion on both sides.
But my point in covering it here at PTO Today is to take a look at what can happen when politics gets wrapped together with parent group work. This current Utah story looks at a state PTA official opining that voucher proponents are doing Satan's work. The proponents are, let's just say, displeased with this assessment.
And here's where the trouble comes in, in my opinion, if you're a local PTA in Utah. There are bound to be many voucher proponents in your school. Are those parents going to be happy joining your organization, especially if vouchers are a passionate issue for them. Same would be true on the other side, if PTA was advocating vouchers. It's not the content of the position but the existence of the positions that can get in the way for so many groups. Most groups I work with put parent involvement and growing community around their school and kids as their first priorities. This kind of political activism works counter to those goals.
There's got to be a better way that allows passionate issue-oriented parents to organize while not getting in the way of creating cohesive communities of involved parents around our schools. Groups like the Public Education Network are doing that kind of organizing outside of typical parent groups. Kind of a nice model -- parent groups not slipping advocacy in where parents don't want it and advocacy groups doing advocacy.
Interested in other ideas...
But my point in covering it here at PTO Today is to take a look at what can happen when politics gets wrapped together with parent group work. This current Utah story looks at a state PTA official opining that voucher proponents are doing Satan's work. The proponents are, let's just say, displeased with this assessment.
And here's where the trouble comes in, in my opinion, if you're a local PTA in Utah. There are bound to be many voucher proponents in your school. Are those parents going to be happy joining your organization, especially if vouchers are a passionate issue for them. Same would be true on the other side, if PTA was advocating vouchers. It's not the content of the position but the existence of the positions that can get in the way for so many groups. Most groups I work with put parent involvement and growing community around their school and kids as their first priorities. This kind of political activism works counter to those goals.
There's got to be a better way that allows passionate issue-oriented parents to organize while not getting in the way of creating cohesive communities of involved parents around our schools. Groups like the Public Education Network are doing that kind of organizing outside of typical parent groups. Kind of a nice model -- parent groups not slipping advocacy in where parents don't want it and advocacy groups doing advocacy.
Interested in other ideas...
