I think it is important to clarify what exactly PTA is political on.
We do not endorse any political entities. We have positions on issues of a child related nature, such as Safety and Protection-restraint systems, cooperative roles of parents or vouchers etc.
Our lobbying efforts are only as they directly relate to children. We do not and cannot endorse any political candidates.
As a member, you are not required to take the same stance as PTA. You are just not allowed to do your activities in relation to your position as a PTA member unless it is in direct agreement with the resolutions, statements and directives.
In other words, you can make a media comment in favor of something such as underage drinking but you can't attach PTA to it.
Sending out an informational flyer is not the same thing as taking a stand on an issue. I look at it the same way as a PTA should handle contributions from a business to a PTA event. You put up a sign with their name and address and thank them for their contribution. You DON'T make statements of support.
Now this is different and probably different per school! Our school PTO is non-political meaning we do not involve ourselves with the local government...for us, this means Venezuela. As expatriates, we have also signed contracts with our sponsoring companies to remain apolitical. Our school board is not elected, per se, it is assigned by the companies who own the school. So if any parent contacted the BOD about budget cuts then they would do so directly and this would not be considered "political". Now if we were in the States and the same situation came up, the PTO could certainly say that this budget cut has come up and then the members could individually decide their plan of action. Should the PTO collectively fight this? Maybe not...what if they decide to keep the police program and then the board has to do away with a reading program? Are we as the executive board basing our fight on how we feel about the "police program" or on our actual knowledge of the budget constraints? Plus, if this program is best for our school, it may not be best for the school next door...I believe when we were discussing lobbying it was more at a national level and the changes we would be enacting would effect more than just our own school. As the PTO president I would hope that I know what is best for our school in most situations, but I would not want someone else to make decisions about what we need if they are not even a part of our school...seems to me that is what lobbying is all about in the sense of the original message. :cool:
Interesting responses! Like I said, I was just posting in case it was an issue for your school, and I thought it was a good article, but I'll throw an example in here for the sake of discussion since there are so many different viewpoints.
Recently, our school board was considering various last minute budget cuts. One proposal was to eliminate the funding for police officers who come to the schools to present safety programs to the students--things related to the safety patrols, gangs, not getting into cars with strangers, drug use, etc. Our school
sent out a flyer stating that this program was up for consideration to be cut, and if you had an issue with that, here was a list of the people to whom you should make your opinion known. This potential cut was very last minute, and had only brief mention in the local paper (I guess I should note that our local paper is the Washington Post, and local news is more like whatever the President happens to be doing that day). So, had the school not sent out the flyer, most parents would have been completely unaware of this program being cut. (Both PTAs and PTOs sent out notice about this, BTW.)
It sounds like most of you who responded would not have had your PTOs involved in this issue if it was your school district. I just found that kind of surprising--maybe it's the difference between larger urban areas and small communities where this type of information on school budgets is more widely disseminated?
Our PTO does not endorse any candidate, but you can bet we get very political when supporting mileage increases, state admendments that adversely affect schools and other issues that affect funding.
100% of your membership does not have to agree to support an issue. I belong to the PTA and I don't agree with everything they do.
Your article has great information, but I don't recall anyone posting on this site to say that non-profits have to be political or non-political. The PTA is a national organization and is a political group. Lobbying for educational and childrens' rights are part of its backbone. The schools that choose not to be a part of this national organization may do so because of its political bent or for millions of other reasons. Personally, our group is non-political by our bylaws. :cool:
