Debate: Should PTAs be allowed to fund school staff positions?

NEA Today, Feb 1999 by Gordon, Kathleen, Kuhn, Harry

Kathleen Gordon is a library information specialist at Denn John Middle School in Kissimmee, Florida. An educator for more than 27 years, Gordon has served as an Association activist on the local and state level. In 1997, she was named the Osceola County Middle School Vocational Teacher of the Year.

Any and all measures parents can take to enhance a school's learning environment should not just be permittedthey should be welcomed with open arms.

When PTA members are allowed to contribute by funding staff positions, kids get more than just the benefit of an extra adult's time. Theyand the entire school communityget a renewed sense of pride, selfreliance, and self-worth.

Seeing parents at work to help their child's school makes students proud of their family. It creates a sense of the importance of education. And it gives students the chance to learn about civic responsibility.

When PTAs are allowed to fund programs and people, parents get more involved in all aspects of education. They see firsthand what their school needs, and they have ownership in the school's progress.

That, in turn, creates and promotes harmony, not violence. It encourages support for the entire school program. And it builds a cohesiveness that dispels separatism and elitism.

Allowing PTAs the chance to help also empowers parents, particularly those in poor urban or rural districts. Prohibiting them from supporting their school staffs, even with small contributions, is just another way of telling them they can't-and don'tmake a difference.

For years, school boards and administrators have allowed big business in, not just to help out, but to market their products to our children.

I say that if Pepsi or Coca-Cola or any other business's motives are altruistic, they don't need a contract to make a contribution. They can make a donation, take a tax write-off, and go home.

But they want contracts-and profits-off our kids. Why let corporations in and prohibit PTAs? Our parents aren't looking for contractsthey're only looking out for our kids.

Now some say that allowing PTAs to fund staff positions will increase inequities among schools and school districts. But let's face it: Inequities already exist-and have been around as long as public schools have existed.

In 1970, as part of the move to integration, I was transferred from a school with an all-Black student body and no nursing staff to a school with a full-time registered nurse paid for by the local PTA.

Should the students at my new school have been deprived of these medical benefits because of a bureaucratic policy prohibiting PTAs from funding positions?

It doesn't matter if one PTA can fund a certified teacher or teacher aide, while another can't. What matters is that a need is met, and kids are better off for it.

What's the downside? If school board members consider cutting funds that they believe rich PTAs can make up, then parents can vote them out. The vote is their equalizer.

Given our current times and economy, we'll never be rid of all the inequities. Still, we can build pride and develop responsible, productive citizens when we encourage all to give their best effort to every task.

Yes, inequities exist-in schools, neighborhoods, cities, and counties throughout our nation. But that's no reason to punish our students.

Harry Kuhn, a school social worker with 25 years of experience in the Rahway, New Jersey, public schools, has served as an area PTA president and board of education member. He holds master's degrees in educational psychology and social work and can be reached via E-mail at hkuhn@rahway.net.

Allowing PTAs to fund staff posisitions would put the core democratic values of public education and democracy at risk in more ways than one.

It would undermine:

The freedom of equal educational opportunity. Public education is just that-pen and accessible, free and equal for all enrolled students.

Funding staff positions with private money-from the PTA or any other private group or individual-would create a grievous socioeconomic inequity in the school community. Some would get more, while others get less. That cheats students of equality of access.

If the music teacher's salary is no longer a public expense-shared by all-but is, in fact, private-selective and exclusive-who would be entitled to seats in that classroom? Would seats be reserved only for students whose parents contributed to the music teacher's salary?

Public education is a public trust that gives all children, regardless of their families' financial status, a seat in America's classroom.

The notion of a common good. In New Jersey, taxpayers would welcome any form of relief from their burden of funding municipal, local education, and county and state government programs and services.

But PTA funding of staff positions strikes at the heart of one of our most cherished social philosophies, first minted in Rahway in 1786, "E Pluribus Unum."

"One from many" guides the weaving of our cultural fabric as a nation of local communities. Rahway is a prime example of a community that is diverse but not divided. Here, we unite for the common good of all not just for those who can afford more.