Not Your Mother’s PTA:

An in-depth study of women’s political activism in the National PTA and its local units. Read the article here here.

The Differences Between PTAs and PTOs at a Glance

Parent Teacher Organizations are local, independent, and not affiliated with a national organization. Their focus is mainly the well being of local schools and local children. Even in PTOs, however, the parent consumers tend to be the junior partners to teacher/administrator providers–the opposite of buyer/seller relations in a healthy marketplace Read the article here.

The Politics of the PTA

The national PTA has a long history of public policy advocacy and close ties with the National Education Association. Charlene Harr’s book discusses her discovery of that history. Intended or not, local PTAs have served as education and political subsidiaries of the NEA. Harr’s discovery eventually led to the emergence of independent, local, grassroot Parent Teacher Organizations. Read the full article.

Parents and Schools

Parents and Schools: The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By William W. Cutler, III Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.   Briefing Why aren’t schools more responsive to parent and taxpayer demands for improvement? Because they are a monopoly and they just don’t care? Because they are increasingly influenced by unions and put member interests ahead of the public interest? Or, is … Read More