Reply to Do most families join PTA?

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Do most families join PTA?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our school has a dismal sign up rate - only 76 memberships out of over 600 kids in the elementary school. It’s a good example of how wealthier schools have an edge over less affluent ones; PTAs can make big differences for student, parent, and teacher experiences. When you have a virtually non existent PTA, it’s much more difficult. We have a yearly budget of ~$5,000 inclusive of fundraisers. Even schools with similar demographics / SES profiles in our area have budgets of upward of $20,000 because more families are involved.

As a parent who is a member and who values an active PTA it’s sometimes frustrating that there are so many parents who are “free riders” at our school. The cost of membership is $15 so not super expensive. [/quote]

$15 is a LOT for many families at a low income school.  Many don't join because of how the PTA is run, not money and if you want more members, give a low income waiver.[/quote]

The PTA is run well and by a diverse set of officers - racially, ethnically, socio-economically and otherwise. The poster who noted that culturally many families are not accustomed to pitching in to support a school and students is dead on; this is an issue for us. And, candidly, as someone who’s volunteered for the PTA over the last four years, my sense is also many parents aren’t interested in contributing - they want to “get”. There’s a sense of entitlement. They want the book fair, they want the pumpkin patch, the free movie night, they want the field trips and cultural events the PTA supports and feel entitled to those things (most paid for or subsidized through through PTA memberships, fundraisers, etc). They don’t seem interested in helping to do the work to earn those things, even when they understand the role of the PTA in advocating for and supporting these types of enrichment events.

To PP who said $15 is a lot. I disagree and am not a wealthy person by any stretch. It comes to about $1.50 a month for the school year per family. It’s a very low rate when compared to virtually any MCPS PTA (our nieghbor if ES is $30 and the middle school is $35). It’s a matter of prioritization. Either it matters to a parent to spend the equivalent of a Coke or Pepsi per month to support their kids’ educational experience or it doesn’t. For most at our school, it’s not a priority. Lots of free riders and unfortunately the kids at our school won’t get the kinds of support and opportunities afforded by active PTAs at wealthier schools where parents are invested and active. Sad but true. [/quote]

Maybe your PTA is diverse but ours isn't diverse or welcome.  If you aren't friends with  the PTA president, you are not welcome.  If you don't agree with her bad ideas, you are not welcome.  If you do anything she does not approve of even outside the PTA, drama.  She does the absolute minimum.   There are no educational experiences, there are no enrichment activities, there is no fundraising to help the school purchase things.  They only do a very limited amount of stuff and many of us have tried to change it.  If we want to do something, its welcomed by the school and we just do it directly for them.  There are no field trips, there are no cultural experiences, there are no movie nights... nothing.  And, no one wants a book fair.  We buy to support the PTA/school but you can buy the books a lot cheaper off amazon.  We didn't contribute anything to reopening.

$15 is a lot if you have a large FARMS school.  So you are wealthy if $15 a month is no big deal to you.  Many of our families are lining up for free food.  Would you rather them feed their kids or donate to the PTA?   You are very toned death and should look at your attitude as you are probably one of the folks people avoid the PTA for.  Your intentions are good but in all reality how you go about them is very poor.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics