PTO Today

This Dallas feature takes an interesting look at Texas state PTA membership and parent volunteering trends in the Lone Star State.  Looks like Texas PTA membership is down 200,000 in last 15 years or so at a time when Texas student enrolment is up by 1 million or so.  I was surprised to see this, as Texas PTA has traditionally been one of the strongest and most aggressive state PTAs on membership development.

One missing piece from the article is the possibility that the PTA membership decline does not necessarily mean a decline in parent volunteering as a whole.  If an existing PTA disbands and becomes a PTO (as has happened quite a bit across the country), PTA membership goes down but parent volunteering does not.   Not sure if that’s a cause of the Texas numbers per se, but certainly a possibility.

Do think the article captures an interesting phenomenon that I’m sure *is*a factor in Texas.  Many immigrant parents do not think of parent involvement in same ways that many long-time citizens may think of as “traditional”.  That’s a definite challenge for all schools and parent groups.  Some thoughts on that in this feature story on engaging immigrant parents.

Interested in your thoughts on the Texas PTA membership story as well as your own creative solutions for connecting with multi-cultural parents.

Have been hearing more and more chatter from Utah these days around PTO v PTA issues. Utah has always been a heavily PTA state, but there’s been a not-insignificant number of media stories and small dust-ups in the past year or so re: local groups exploring options. 

Interesting, therefore, that this state senator is forwarding a bill to open up the state, hoping to prohibit requiring dues for parent involvement.   One obvious implication of the bill — as noted by Utah PTA president — would be a conflict with standard PTA bylaws, which require dues for all members.  Will follow this story as it progresses.

Quick story from Utah on a PTA-to-PTO switch. The reasons given are fairly standard: feeling that dollars going out don’t match value and a bit of a mis-fit with PTA politics.  The non-standard part is the state.  Utah remains the highest % PTA state in the country (by far).

Found this quote:

Other benefits Dyreng has seen through the PTO are not having to deal with the politics of a national association. “We’re just not tied to all the politics the PTA has,” said Dyreng.

…interesting, as it captures pretty well the common, subtle disconnect between PTA politics and locals.  It’s not content of PTA positions that is typically the issue, but more the fact that the connection to politics (by definition, politics = contentious) tends to get in way of what many groups consider their more important goals of growing parent involvement, creating community at school and supporting kids and teachers. Politics isn’t exactly the recipe for kum-bay-ya togetherness and involvement.

Suburban Chicago paper reviews recent switch of local group from a PTA to a PTO. Group cites nearly $1,000 PTA price-tag and mis-fit with PTA policy initiatives as primary motivations.

We’ve tracked many of these over the years. Here’s a link to our search results on “PTO PTA” and here’s our PTO v PTA homepage.

This four-year-old group decides that PTA option not working best for them and makes switch to PTO. For more on the PTO v PTA differences, our cover story on PTO v PTA is here.

Readers of this blog have followed this story for months and months now. Doesn’t seem like an easy conclusion is in sight. Basically, the Maryland PTA pulled the charter of the Baltimore PTA Council. State claims that council wasn’t operating well or responding to requests. Lot of debate has ensued. Still don’t really get the big problem. Don’t think the Baltimoreans realize that they could — like hundreds and hundreds of other districts — just re-form their council independently. Just a thought…

Not since Barbara Eden was traipsing around Harper Valley have parent group volunteers had this kind of attention. You can’t turn on the TV or read the paper without reading about how this PTA mom has ascended to the national stage. Cool, right?

I ‘m hopeful that the attention leads to even more school involvement. Now there’s a platform we all can get behind!

I do have a quibble, though, or at least something to keep an eye on. While no one is making the case that PTA or PTO leadership is akin to national and international standing, it should be equally clear that volunteering (and leading volunteers) shouldn’t be any kind of a blackmark either. I can’t give you an exact link (if you have one, send it through), but several of the commentaries I’ve seen contain a subtle condescension toward Palin’s school volunteer work, as if no one of real substance would have done that job. That’s equally unfair and says more about the speaker than it does school volunteers.

Finally, one interesting link. Found this memo from/to national PTA leadership re: what to say about Governor Palin.

Will be interesting to see if Palin’s school work/school beginnings stay in the spotlight or if — as I suspect — that element of her biography will fall more into the background as the election nears.

Have to give credit to Tennessee authorities for listening and responding to feedback about the 2007 “school support” regulations that came down last year.

Effective July 1, 2008, several clarifications and improvements have been made (Tennessee regs summarized here). The end result: common sense (and parent groupos and kids around the state) win!

In a nutshell, a needed distinction has been made between school funds and school events and parent group funds and parent group events. Parent groups aren’t required to be 501(c)(3)s and funds are not required to be run through the district. Financial best practices still encouraged. Nice.

Fresno (CA) Bee takes a look at slow, steady decline of PTAs in region and at PTA leadership’s hopes to stem the tide. Good, comprehensive piece captures both sides.

Our PTO v PTA homepage has more on the topic.

I imagine we’ll be seeing a fairly large onslaught of press over next couple of weeks, as PTA hires male CEO and prepares to install first-ever male president. It’s perfect for PR. Here’s the first feature we’ve seen on the PTA CEO hire.

For the record, a couple of clarifications for the article: 1) That 6 million in membership is actually around 5.3 million these days. But what’s three quarters of a million members (or 13%) among friends? 2) That 26,000 units is actually around 23,000 units.