Reply to How much does it cost to join your PTA?

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[quote=Anonymous]$40 for a Bethesda-area elementary school - at least that was the cost last year.
That's just for joining the PTA and getting a directory (useful for playdates and birthday parties).

I went on a crusade a few years ago to decrease the cost, but was told it was practically nothing.
So I joined the board and realized that indeed, there are families who donate thousands of dollars to the PTA!

And I also found out that the PTA uses the funds it raises for very worthy causes: it pays for before or after-school remediation, it pays for after-school classes and school field trips for underprivileged students who can't afford it, it pays for electronics replacements in all classrooms (laptops, Prometheum boards, etc, so that the school doesn't have to wait years for MCPS to replace them). It pays for extra school supplies and books for every teacher. It pays for artists and scientists to come in and provide cultural arts and STEM enrichment activities (very expensive!). It pays for Kindergarten orientation, the school fair, contributes to replacing playground equipment and toys, Teacher Appreciation Week, and the teacher training that MCPS has cut because of budget cuts (substitutes' salary and teacher training material), which ensures that teachers stay on top of their game.

All that can't be bought for $40 per family. We're talking 50K annual PTA budgets in the Bethesda-area schools. In a very real way, this is what differentiates rich districts from poorer districts.[/quote]

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