There Needs to Be Enforced Equity Among PTA's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My old school district in another state did this nonsense. For instance a massive prom was held at an off site private location right after school year ended. They just stopped doing funded events during school year.

A simpler solution would be to form a PTO, not PTA and have all the money go to the organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My old school district in another state did this nonsense. For instance a massive prom was held at an off site private location right after school year ended. They just stopped doing funded events during school year.

A simpler solution would be to form a PTO, not PTA and have all the money go to the organization.

Or, a booster club.

[Anonymous]

A simpler solution is additional resources from MCPS. Why is there such dependency in schools for parental donations? MCPS can see where the inequities are. Why aren’t they providing more for high need schools?

[Anonymous]

MCPS DOES provide more as does the State and Federal Govt (smaller class sizes = more teachers = more funding). More funding for meals as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A simpler solution is additional resources from MCPS. Why is there such dependency in schools for parental donations? MCPS can see where the inequities are. Why aren’t they providing more for high need schools?

The issue is how mcps spends the money and not about being enough. Mccpta is an advocacy group that we pay to fix these issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With regards to teacher gifts, I give to the teachers who are really great and the amount I give reflects my experience with that teacher. I don’t think it needs to be equitable. I’m sure you see some teachers are far more talented and work far harder than other teachers.
Equity is going to ruin this school system.

That is the strangest comment I’ve heard. Equity - more children having an equitable school experience - will ruin the school system. M’kay. So what makes the school system special to you is that there are haves and have nots?

[Anonymous]

It’s sad that in the richest nation in the world, in one of the wealthiest counties (because yes, we are still one of the wealthier counties in the country), teachers have to depend on parental donations to buy basics for their classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With regards to teacher gifts, I give to the teachers who are really great and the amount I give reflects my experience with that teacher. I don’t think it needs to be equitable. I’m sure you see some teachers are far more talented and work far harder than other teachers.
Equity is going to ruin this school system.

That is the strangest comment I’ve heard. Equity - more children having an equitable school experience - will ruin the school system. M’kay. So what makes the school system special to you is that there are haves and have nots?

DP. I don't think you understand the difference between "equity" and "equality".

Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

It's impossible to reach "equal outcomes" of equity goals. Ex. an under-18 commits murder. There is no possible equal outcome unless you condone murder. Another Ex. a kid doesn't care about school or academics. There is no equal outcome if the kid isn't willing to work.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Poors can stop spending on big macs and help their schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad that in the richest nation in the world, in one of the wealthiest counties (because yes, we are still one of the wealthier counties in the country), teachers have to depend on parental donations to buy basics for their classrooms.

Basics?MCPS provides for all materials and resources needed to support the curriculum. I'm always baffled to hear people say this. I'm on the PTSA Board at our school and every year we ask the Principal and staff how we can help in terms of school supplies, etc. The answer is always, "We don't need any of that. MCPS provides." Even my teacher friend who moved from MCPS to a system in South Carolina said there is such a stark difference in how teachers are supported between the 2 with MCPS providing support by far compared to where she is today.

[Anonymous]

Not just funding. Parents should be drafted to serve as volunteers at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad that in the richest nation in the world, in one of the wealthiest counties (because yes, we are still one of the wealthier counties in the country), teachers have to depend on parental donations to buy basics for their classrooms.

Basics?MCPS provides for all materials and resources needed to support the curriculum. I'm always baffled to hear people say this. I'm on the PTSA Board at our school and every year we ask the Principal and staff how we can help in terms of school supplies, etc. The answer is always, "We don't need any of that. MCPS provides." Even my teacher friend who moved from MCPS to a system in South Carolina said there is such a stark difference in how teachers are supported between the 2 with MCPS providing support by far compared to where she is today.

Maybe your school, but not ours. However, we just do without. PTA is not allowed to buy some supplies according to our principal. We offered to buy books and other things and were told it wasn't allowed. Google slides aren't enough for some kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np here who was involved in a high-FARMs school’s PTA.
I want to correct the notion that these PTAs are struggling because the families are poor. To be sure, the families don’t have huge amounts of disposable income to donate to their local PTA, but that isn’t the root of the matter, IMO.

Many kids in these schools have parents who weren’t born in the US, and did not have anything like a PTA in their own childhood. (My friend whose parents were immigrant engineers —and heavily invested in their kids’ academic success—said that this was the case for her parents back in the 70s, too.) The PTAs (including local and state/national) also do very little, if anything, to explain to these new-American families why the PTA is something they should care about or join. It’s an American “institution”, if you will, which is why US-raised parents join their PTAs when their kids start school.
So PTAs suffer from a lack of buy-in/membership.

What you need to do is have some activities that would be of interest, that requires PTA membership to participate.
For example, if these foreign families are Asian, have a math club/MOEMS or if there is someone willing to put in a lot of work Odyssey of the Mind. This would be a good fundraiser as well.
Then once you have the memberships, you can advertise more events and people will be more knowledgeable about PTA.

Only Asian families care about math? What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My old school district in another state did this nonsense. For instance a massive prom was held at an off site private location right after school year ended. They just stopped doing funded events during school year.

A simpler solution would be to form a PTO, not PTA and have all the money go to the organization.

There really seems to be someone aiming to control a central pot of parent PTA money? It's the worst idea ever BTW. MCPS has a vested interest in the local PTA running defensive tackle for the P. Flip that apple cart and the PTO will have almost no traction with a local school, which means that parents won't join.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My old school district in another state did this nonsense. For instance a massive prom was held at an off site private location right after school year ended. They just stopped doing funded events during school year.

A simpler solution would be to form a PTO, not PTA and have all the money go to the organization.

There really seems to be someone aiming to control a central pot of parent PTA money? It's the worst idea ever BTW. MCPS has a vested interest in the local PTA running defensive tackle for the P. Flip that apple cart and the PTO will have almost no traction with a local school, which means that parents won't join.

The local school will give traction to whatever group is donating the money and time. Do you think principals really care if the group calls itself PTA or PTO or a booster club?