I'm not involved in any PTO "versus" PTA relationships, but I was surprised by the information attributed to a PTA County President in the article on the January 9 blog page here. It seems pretty uninformed, and maybe purposefully self-serving, for Bonnie Abellera, Leon County Council president to describe all PTO's as fundraising organizations whose goal is to financially support the school. Maybe the reporter misunderstood Ms. Abellera's comments.

oh critter...ha ha ha isnt that what you are in for..fundraising all the money in the world???

having provided a response myself to newspaper reporters, I know that you can say 12 different things and then they cut it down to whatever part of the quote they want. Chances are she said more but for many reasons, it didn't get in. Remember we are dealing with the press.

Believe me--PTOs do NOT control the fundraising-machine market. Just come to any of my school's PTA meetings and you'll get a bird's eye view!

what about the outrage in that the principal is doing this so that he can control the money! We all know what happens when that becomes the case. This does lend a lot to one of the arguments I've heard is that administrators want PTO's so that they can control the money....

But being a PTO doesnt' make it any easier for a principal to control the money. Many, many PTO's are independent 501c3 non-profits.