Reply to UMC parents in low income schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]What I have seen, is in schools with a high (over 65%) Spanish speaking population, there is NO PTA. Why is this? Because you could have all the translators in the world and they are not going to participate. I am not trying to sound racist here. What I have seen are parents living below the poverty line and struggling to put food on the table, much less run a PTA meeting.[/quote]

I agree but has anyone considered that maybe the PTA is not a good thing to have in the first place? Poor people shouldn't be forced to join it if they want to engage.

The solution is not having a PTA and finding other ways to build community and parent engagement without a PTA in low income schools. A PTA that is run by a small number of white people advocating for their needs over the majority of parents that are not involved in their PTA is not OK. The solution isn't to strong arm the poor parents into participating in the PTA but to make sure that the PTA has zero influence and there are other avenues for parental engagement. [/quote]

And who is going to do that?  What are the “other avenues for parental engagement”?  Is the principal supposed to do it?  If parents do it, then there is some kind of parent group.  Whether it is associated with the MD PTA or whether it is some other kind of PTO seems kind of irrelevant.  Either the administration has to do it or the parents have to do it, and I’m not sure why doing it through the PTA structure is inherently worse than having to invent an alternative structure.[/quote]

And for everyone who is complaining about the structure or the parents who run it - you sound like you would be an amazing force of change at your child's school! PTA elections are usually held in May or June, so join the board for next year and implement some of these ideas that will support all of the families at your school! Find ways of drawing out families who might not be able to make it to a PTA meeting and find ways to engage them and help meet their needs. Let your dissatisfaction about the way things currently are at your school and in your PTA be an impetus to create positive change and a shift in the atmosphere at your school.

It always starts with one person. Be that person.[/quote]

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