I have heard of several districts in Texas where the state PTA has successfully advocated for a "we're a PTA district" policy. My sense is there is usually little opposition to these policies until the existing PTOs find out (often after the fact), and then it tends to be too late. The school boards usually want to be done with these kind of issues as quickly and painlessly as possible.
It would be difficult from a practical perspective to just ignore the policy. You could definitely start a parent group of any type you want on your own, but the district has the ability to say who can, for example, meet at the school or use the "backpack express". I'm never a big a fan of two parent groups at same school -- i find it doesn't serve the cause of parent involvement and building community.
But you certainly could open the discussion back up with the school board. There was likely no one very knowledgeable arguing the case against the mandated PTA policy, when that policy was debated. State PTA officials may have painted a picture of PTOs who can't get insurance or who aren't run well, and -- with no explaining how those things are myths -- the school board likely gladly agreed to the PTA policy. Plus, the school board didn't lose a dime of its own money with the policy, so it's an easy vote.
In some of these districts (if there's 20 schools or so), the policy means that tens of thousands of dollars or more of the parents' dues money heads out of the district.
Hope that answer helps. I, of course, think local groups should have their choice for what model works well for them, but I don't think the policy is the end of the world.
Good news is that you can still get really well involved at a PTA just as you did at your PTO. Hope you will.
A user named "Let's ride" posted this question in a different thread. Re-posted here for clarity:
"I am a new President and new to the ISD we live in now. I was a member of the PTA last year but now president want to change over to a PTO. Now I hear that we are a PTA Only District, here in TX. Not sure what this means. Can they really tell us we can't be a PTO if we want too? I was on the PTO board for 4 years with our last school."
