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Bylaws/Nonprofit Elections/Transition PTO vs. PTA

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PTO vs. PTA: What's the Difference?

It was perhaps the loudest reaction on the first day of the 2000 national PTA convention in Chicago. Illinois Superintendent of Schools Dr. Glenn McGee remembered a day earlier in his career when he made the mistake of referring to parent groups as PTOs.

Almost on cue, the crowd of 1,500 or so PTAers roared their disapproval. Loud boos echoed through the cavernous meeting hall. He may as well have said that he hated the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, and the Bears.

Why the strong emotions? Are PTOs hurting kids or doing something wrong? While no PTA defenders go that far, there is a subtle but undeniable implication in PTA circles that those independent groups that aren't part of the PTA are in some way choosing to abandon the cause of children.

It's a debate that has smoldered quietly for decades but that seems to be burning with renewed vigor in recent years. Now more than ever, the national PTA is at a crossroads, and the debate over its future and the direction taken by thousands of individual school parent groups has heated up.

For some groups, the PTO vs. PTA debate is simply a matter of dollars and cents (either "We don't want to send any money out of our school" or "Are we getting enough service for the money we send out of our school?"). For others, though, the debate takes on a significantly increased importance. If we don't speak for all children, then who will? the PTA's most loyal defenders often ask.

Independence vs. Affiliation

The technical differences between a PTA and a PTO are fairly simple. The national PTA is a formal membership organization headquartered in Chicago with a 105-year history of working for children. Local groups that choose to belong to the PTA must pay dues to the state and national organization and abide by state and national group rules. In return, they get member benefits, and they get a voice in the operations of the larger organization. The national PTA maintains a Washington, D.C., lobbying office, and most state PTAs advocate at their respective state capitals, as well. The PTA carefully protects its name, so that in theory only dues-paying members of the group can call themselves a PTA.

PTO, on the other hand, is a more generic term. It generally represents the thousands of groups that choose to remain independent of the PTA. The acronym PTO is the most popular name, but other common monikers include PCC, PTG, and HSA. These are most often single-school groups that operate under their own bylaws and by and large concern themselves with the goings-on at their building or in their town only.

For years, the debate has been exceedingly simple to frame. Do we want to be part of something larger and spend our group dollars outside of our school? Or do we want to focus exclusively on improving and creating community at our school? Since the PTA was the only formal national school parent group, the decision was often PTA or not PTA.

Even in just those terms, the PTA has been losing significant membership. From a record high of 12.1 million members in 1962, PTA membership dropped to just over 5 million in the early 1980s. Today, PTA membership stands at about 5.8 million, despite record-high school enrollments. More than 52 million students are enrolled in America's K-12 schools.

The Massachusetts PTA's experience is telling. "Back in the 1960s, we had over 100,000 members," recalled Massachusetts PTA Treasurer and past President Barbara Bailey in a 1999 interview. "There are just over 20,000 members now in 126 local units."

Parent group leaders from around the country seem to be voting resoundingly with their feet; they're content to work independently at their own schools without the strictures (and dues) associated with formal PTA membership.

"We can't get enough people to come to our meetings anyway, let alone charging them to be members," observes Sue Walter, a PTO president in London, Ky., echoing the most common objection to PTA membership.

Despite its national profile and terrific name recognition, the national PTA actually represents only about 24 percent of the country's parent groups. The remainder have chosen to go (or remain) independent.

PTA Membership at a Glance

Click here for a larger view and more detailed information.

A PTA History

After 100-plus years, the PTA name has certainly achieved a high degree of recognition.

In fact, Dr. McGee's reported slip of the tongue was very unusual. For the vast majority of Americans, the term "school parent group" goes hand in hand with the term "PTA," and it's most often "PTO" that is met with quizzical stares. When Tom T. Hall wrote his chart-topping song, it was "Harper Valley PTA." The movie and TV series of the same name cemented the impression further. Like Kleenex and Band-Aid, the PTA name is often used universally, while the actual numbers tell a different story.

Since its inception in 1897, when Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst started the National Congress of Mothers, the national PTA has spoken out on issues relating to child welfare. PTA support played a role in instituting school lunch and inoculation programs. Even today, the PTA's lobbying branch in Washington, D.C., is actively involved in working against school vouchers and fighting for increased federal education funding.

And national PTA maintains a high profile. Prominent national figures seek out the national PTA for its implied endorsement ("implied" because formal endorsement would be against the PTA's not-for-profit status). Tipper Gore addressed the 2000 national PTA convention; Kathy Ireland spoke on child welfare in 2004; Danny Glover took the podium in 2005. National PTA leaders are frequent guests on talk shows and contributors to discussions on children. In 2003, the national PTA debuted a multi-year, multimillion dollar ad campaign aimed at increasing PTA's name recognition even further. Celebrities like former NBAer Charles Barkley and TV star Anthony Edwards have appeared in radio, print, and TV ads across the country. Interestingly, PTA membership numbers nationally have dropped since the start of this campaign.

At a more basic level, the group certainly provides a host of resources to affiliated groups that want to take advantage. From a carefully crafted Reflections arts campaign that PTA schools can take part in to state and national resource manuals (virtual how-to books on running a parent group) and an active website, PTA member groups are offered many benefits in exchange for group dues.

The Rise of PTOs

Obviously, the trouble for the national PTA is not evidenced in its long list of high-profile affiliations. Instead, the problem is at the local level, where groups struggle to justify the rising expense and sometimes-questionable practical benefits of belonging to the PTA.

The average PTA forwards $850 to its state and national leadership in dues alone. Increasingly, groups are looking at those dollars in terms of what the money could buy for the local school—an extra field trip, perhaps, or maybe a new color printer for each grade. Other groups would prefer to charge no dues or lower dues rather than having to charge local dues on top of state and national dues. While PTA leaders are quick to point out that many parent group purchases should actually be part of a school budget, local parent groups (both PTAs and PTOs) often step in and provide extras for their schools when school budgets run dry. When measured in purely economic (cost-benefit) terms, local groups often ask, "Are we getting enough value for the hundreds of dollars we pay in dues?"

"Our dues are $5 per member," points out Sue Greenleaf of the Norris Road PTO in Tyngsboro, Mass. "We use that money for buses for field trips and all kinds of other things. If we had to send half our dues to the PTA, we'd have to do a lot more fundraising. For what we use the funds for, I don't see how the PTA can help us in our individual school."

That math has only become more difficult in recent years, as national PTA dues have risen 75 percent since 2000 and PTA leaders have proposed higher increases that have been voted down at PTA conventions. National PTA dues rose from $1 to $1.75 per member between 1999 and 2002. State PTAs also charge per-member dues to their local units, as do some county council PTAs. In Connecticut, national and state dues combined are now $4.75 per member. The average Connecticut PTA local unit sends more than $900 in dues to the national and state PTAs.

The 21st Century PTA

While some PTAers see the membership decline as cause for concern, national PTA leaders are actually moving in a different direction. A recently completed long-term strategic plan has PTA leaders focused on maintaining a core group of parent leaders committed to the PTA agenda, according to former PTA Director of Public Relations Patty Yoxall. It's a wholesale shift from a philosophy of wanting all parent groups to associate with the PTA.

"If we get a bit more focused, people may leave us," says Yoxall. "We want people who are committed to this agenda, and if they're not, that's fine. Go be a PTO and have a nice life."

Yoxall talks of a PTA in which every member is a trained advocate for children. She speaks of a PTA down the road that is the voice for families and for children. The PTA's wide-ranging advertising campaign has been a first step in this effort. Creating a new leadership structure—through a reshuffling of its Board, through the creation of a highly paid CEO position for the group, and through a broad expansion of headquarters staff and payroll—is another move aimed at repositioning the PTA as an important player with a voice in national issues. Critics say it's an expensive and risky bet on the future of the PTA.

It's here, in the debate over what the PTA voice should say, that the PTO vs. PTA argument has become most heated in recent years. The PTA takes strong public stands on some controversial issues (opposing school vouchers and supporting a gay/lesbian PTA unit, for example), and those stances have led some groups to disassociate from the PTA. Recent headlines in Utah and on Fox News Network have highlighted groups choosing to leave the PTA rather than support locally unpopular political stances. While the PTA claims that its political role is central to its mission and has been for more than a century, many local units don't see the value.

Other critics claim that the general PTA membership is unaware of the PTA's major political bent. "One of the basic problems with the PTA is that the membership is not aware of what the lobbying efforts are," says Charlene Haar, author of The Politics of the PTA, a carefully researched look into PTA past and present. The parent members who are financing the organization are unaware of the lobbying agenda at the state and national level. Most PTA policy stances are voted on at the group's annual convention each June. Typically, fewer than 1,000 PTA members (of more than 5.7 million members nationwide) are certified to vote at that convention.

Societal shifts have played a part in the changing role of the PTA. Not long ago, the PTA could rightfully claim to be the only provider of parent group resources. If you wanted information on running a group or fundraising or Robert's Rules of Order, or if you wanted materials on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or bus safety or school bullying, the PTA was a valued clearinghouse. Today, with the advent of round-the-clock communication and the spread of the Internet, that PTA role takes on far less importance. There are dozens of sites on the Web focused specifically on parent involvement, fundraising, or playgrounds. Want ADD info? Why not try www.chadd.org?

PTOs No Longer Alone

Even one of the PTA's most common selling points—"A PTO is not part of a national or state organization and therefore doesn't have a network to get information from" is the common refrain on most state PTA websites—is less true today than ever before. Since the establishment in 1999 of PTO Today Inc., a company focused on providing resources and services to parent-teacher groups, all parent groups now have access to the types of services once available only to PTAs. With a print magazine, an active website, a series of training events and conferences across the country, and a host of similarly focused products and programs, PTO Today has established itself as a valuable resource for all parent groups.

Much as PTA officials are often looked to by national media for input on parent and parent involvement issues, PTO Today has quickly assumed a similar role. PTO Today experts and PTO Today parent involvement content have appeared on national and local television and in newspapers around the country, including USA Today, Newsweek, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, Child magazine, Martha Stewart Kids, and many more.

The vast majority of PTO Today's services are available and used by both PTOs and PTAs alike. At one time, it was thought that groups leaving the PTA desired isolation, but the strong grassroots response to PTO Today's offerings suggests that perhaps those groups were simply looking for a different model of assistance.

One of PTO Today's offerings in particular, known as PTO Today Plus (formerly the National PTO Network), combines many of the benefits once associated only with formal PTA membership into a simpler, less expensive package. Through PTO Today Plus, groups receive a variety of members-only content resources (how-to's and the like), access to a group liability insurance program, discounts on all PTO Today products and services, and exclusive use of expert phone consultants. PTO Today Plus groups remain completely independent. At $199 for the first year, the PTO Today Plus price tag is often nearly $800 lower per group than the typical $850-$1,000 average PTA dues investment. (Get more information about PTO Today Plus.)

Now, more than ever, it seems that the PTA cannot be—nor does it need to be—everything to everybody.

The Years Ahead

Moving forward, PTA critic Haar and PTA spokeswoman Yoxall actually seem to have compatible hopes for the future of the PTA. Haar works toward a day when all PTA members know what is going on. If they then choose to be members, fine. But they should at least be informed. Yoxall similarly sees a PTA that says, "Instead of 'We want all groups,' maybe 'We want the groups that buy in.' "

Despite the ever-louder talk of differences and division, two important facts remain. Nearly all K-8 schools still have active parent groups, and nearly all active parent groups work toward the same goal: strong, nurturing schools. Even PTA-affiliated parent groups, which are part of the larger "all children" philosophy, spend the vast majority of their time working to improve their single school.

"When it really comes down to it, all of the groups do the same things," notes the Massachusetts PTA's Bailey. And Haar points out that the decline in PTA rolls doesn't represent a lack of parent involvement because where there is not a PTA, there is a PTO or another parent group.

There's little doubt that the PTA will continue to play an important part in the parent group world in years to come. There's equally little doubt that its future role will be different from the one it has held in the past. Tens of thousands of parent groups have left the PTA in recent years, even when it was the only resource provider available. With more options out there for groups today, that trend is likely to continue.

But no matter what the numbers, PTOs and PTAs are more alike than they are different. Put 1,000 PTAers in a room with 1,000 PTOers and you wouldn't be able to tell them apart (and, no, you wouldn't need to issue boxing gloves). Committed, generous volunteers are the common denominator. As long as those volunteers continue to support their schools—through a PTO, a PTA, or any other mechanism—then children, all children, will be the winners.

Click here to add your 2 cents to the PTO/PTA discussion.

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