Question: Can a PTO openly supprt a district bond issue

Our PTO is supposed to be non-partisan but we would like to issue a statement in support of an upcoming bond election. Can we do that and not violate our non-partisan by-law? Is it a bad idea to do sucha thing?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
On this, I'm going to borrow from an answer our editor in chief provided another PTO in regards to this question: Can PTO support and donate money to a school levy committee? For this question, the answer is: You can, but you probably shouldn't. First, the rules: The IRS absolutely forbids 501c3 tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or supporting political candidates in any way. You can do a small amount of lobbying for legislation, including ballot initiatives. So you likely can donate to the levy committee (state rules notwithstanding) as long as the donation isn't a substantial part of your overall budget. However, we've seen school levy issues derail many groups. These issues aren't cut and dried, and even people who support the school can disagree. We recommend instead of making a donation from the PTO, you ask members to donate individually if they would like.