Again, Go Gifford.....

One view on this==While the pta sells them selves as non-political, they are not. In that the current nation pta president traveled with Tipper Gore labels this organization as political. In that, when they speak for all children, they speak their point of view. I must tell you, that this is very objectionalbe to our organization. If you can not see this one fault in the the pta we are not going to be able to discuss this on a rational basis. It would be the equivilent to a democrate paying dues to a republican organization, just because the republicans say they speak out for all children. Exactly who gives the pta the right to speak for my children? How do they know really what the concerns are in our district? I see this as the biggest draw back from accepting everything the pta stands for. It is deceptive.

Please let me know why you are thinking of not being a PTA.

In our one little city we have (4) elementary schools, (1) middle school, (1) high school, (1) continuation school. There are 6 other large cities in our school dist., and 2 other school districts with large cities. All of which are PTO's. The main problem I see is that there is no consistency in insurance liability, imbezzlement protection, or end of year accounting and tax filing, which I have just filed (4) years taxes.

The only parent groups that I've been involved have been PTO's which have supported the school by taking care of field trips and other items. Without being tied to a member support group, the only support comes from the school and if any, the district. Being there is no formal guidelines to follow other than the individual group's Bylaws, things can get changed a lot and the PTO can just "let things ride", leaving the next year group to "deal" with the problem.

I only see positive things by being involved with the PTA and also supporting their efforts. Also, the parents are more familiar with a name brand name and there is little explaining on what the group is. Our school has changed their name 6 times since they filed their application for non-profit, this makes it very confusing.