PTO vs. PTA?
January 15, 2010 1:32 PM   Subscribe

PTO or PTA? My kid's school (currently a PTO) will discuss switching at the next meeting. I don't see many benefits. Am I missing something?

My wife is the Vice President of the PTO at a small (300 student) elementary school. Parent participation in the PTO is weak at best. It looks like PTA is fee based. Is it worth it? How do we figure out if the school and PTA are a good match?
posted by I'm Doing the Dishes to Education (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Here is an article and list of related articles that you might find helpful.

In a nutshell, PTA is a brand name, and joining the national PTA as a local chapter means more rules and more expenses, since fees must be paid to the state/national org. "PTO" refers to any parent-teacher organization that is not a PTA chapter.

As a data point: in our suburban district, with about 30 campuses, all of the elementaries are PTA, but the upper schools are about 50/50 split. The president of a nearby middle school PTO told me that they decided to go "independent" because they didn't see the need to pay the PTA chapter fees; and, it is one of the strongest parent orgs in the district. In other words, their perspective was, "We're doing just fine on our own and don't need to join the national umbrella org."

To me the real question in your case is not PTO vs. PTA, but why is parent participation low at your campus? For the school to have a PTA membership means fees will go up, as will the number of rules and regulations to follow. I don't see how more rules and more expense are inclined to increase parent participation. But if the existing org is experiencing high turnover, challenges in management or district relations, or lack of fundraising or effective programs, the structure offered by PTA might be helpful.

If your wife's PTO board is considering a PTA switch mainly to increase parent participation, I would say the officers should first take a critical look at why parent participation is low—is it an issue of socioeconomics, which is often the #1 factor in parental involvement at school? Is the principal particularly tough to work with? Is the district having overall funding trouble? These aren't likely problems that a PTA membership can solve.

Without more information, I would say that a PTA membership will likely be helpful if the problem is strictly within the existing parent organization. Whereas if the challenges to growth and activity are external, I don't see how the added cost and regulation of PTA does anything but additionally frustrate those on the ground.

I wonder how many schools are in your district, and how do they divide up in PTO vs. PTA? Is parent participation equally low across the district? Or are other elementary schools sustaining thriving parent clubs? If so, what are they doing right that can be duplicated?

And, take (cold) comfort... participation in all civic and community orgs is down this year, as Americans go through a "civic foreclosure" as a result of the recession. So it could be a general problem, not a localized one.
posted by pineapple at 3:12 PM on January 15, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks, pineapple! The school is mostly rural—60% of students get free lunches.

There have been two main issues to prompt the debate. First, we currently do not have non-profit standing. And second, there has been concern about the PTO not having liability insurance to cover events.

Any tips on how to change focus to increasing participation instead of creating more work and worries? What's bad about PTA?
posted by I'm Doing the Dishes at 4:03 PM on January 15, 2010


Unfortunately, statistics show that poor parents and rural parents are less likely to be involved at school (for different reasons), so there might not be much you can do there.

My specific PTA/PTO experience has been limited to the middle-class suburban community where I live now (the rural community where I grew up didn't even have a parent-teacher org), so I can't offer too much insight other than some articles I found.

Parent and Community Involvement in Rural Schools

What needs to be done to increase parent involvement in low-performing schools

One area where I have done a lot of research is civic engagement in general, and PTA/PTO falls under that umbrella. (Specifically, I am fascinated by the anomalous "bump" of civic engagement that PTA creates: people who are inclined to volunteer/serve will do so from aged 16-25, and then there is a big downward slide in activity as they get involved in career and family... with the exception of a spike when those people become parents of elementary-school-aged children! Then, civic involvement declines again until retirement)

So as an observer of the "PTA bump" and someone invested in improving civic engagement across the board, I would love to hear the outcome of what your wife's board ends up deciding. Feel free to Mefimail me or email me!
posted by pineapple at 4:18 PM on January 15, 2010


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