Washington State PTA to Members: Not Qualified to Talk about Money for Education

There was a speech that was delivered by Duncan Taylor, the interim Legislative Director, at this weekend's PTSA convention in Yakima.  I heard about it from several PTA people who told me they were quite surprised at what he said.  He skipped going over what happened at the last legislative session in Olympia which is surprising.

So the lessons learned from this past legislative session were not so important to talk about for Mr. Duncan. Unfortunately, there was one key thing that it would behoove all ed groups to understand - bring the kids.  It certainly was the tipping point for some Democratic legislators for charter law legislation. 

What did he say?

Basically, Mr. Duncan is saying PTSA shouldn't advocate for money for public education for two reasons.

One, all those numbers are too big and complex for parents to understand.

Two, it's not their mission as a group.

 He said that for the last 30 years that the issue of full-funding for public ed has been on their list and why was that?

I'll bite; that education keeps costing more money because of mandates from the state and the need for more student supports? Let's look at the PTA website; here's their mission statement:

Our Mission:
PTA is

• a powerful voice for children,
• a relevant resource for families, schools and communities, and
• an advocate for the well-being and education of all children.

 Mr. Duncan apparently said that PTA isn't a org that works on tax issues.  He said that kind of work wasn't part of their mission.  And, that parents don't have the expertise to talk about it to legislators.

He's probably right on that exact point - taxing"  but under "History" they say, "here are some specific examples of PTA successes right here in Washington" (partial)

•  When local levies failed in the 1950s and kindergartens went unfunded, Washington State PTAs first organized kindergarten "co-ops," then worked to secure state funding for universal kindergarten. 
• Thousands of volunteers from Washington State PTA helped secure the passage of the "simple majority" amendment to the state constitution in 2007.

Those certainly dealt with funding and to pass them, it would have been important to understand state education funding. 

So he advocated for members to work for issues that "transcend what happens in the classroom." He also said the phrase "whole child" which seems to be a new push from PTA to go away from the classroom.

But Mr. Duncan cannot deny the deep ties to education that is PTSA.  I have to wonder if PTA would be in so many schools if their main goal isn't education.  If it's not, why does PTSA get to be the only parent advocacy group directly linked with the overwhelming majority of schools?

Maybe if we are talking about issues around children and schooling in Seattle Public Schools, maybe Soup for Teachers should be the group representing parents, not PTSA.