Know an Outstanding PTA Advocate? Nominate Them for the 2019 Advocacy Awards!

November 12, 2018 By Leave a Comment

PTA advocates go to great lengths to take action for kids. From meeting with local, state and federal decisionmakers to hosting school forums to advocating for legislation and ballot initiatives, PTA advocates consistently go above and beyond to advocate for each and every child.

National PTA recognizes the dedication our advocates through our annual Advocacy Awards which are presented to outstanding individual, state PTA and local PTA advocates at our Legislative Conference. We are now accepting applications for our 2019 Advocacy Awards!

If you are or know of an outstanding youth or individual PTA advocate, or a local unit or state PTA that has done great advocacy work, submit a nomination today! Our four award categories are the Shirly Igo Advocate of the Year Award, Outstanding Youth Advocate of the Year Award, Outstanding State PTA Advocacy Award and Outstanding Local PTA Advocacy Award. Advocacy awardees will receive an all expenses paid trip to National PTA’s 2019 Legislative Conference, March 12-14, where they will have the opportunity to meet with policymakers, hear PTA advocacy success stories and learn how to shape public policy in Washington, DC and at home. Awardees will receive their award and be recognized at LegCon during our Advocacy Awards Dinner.

As in previous years, advocates may self-nominate for the Shirly Igo Advocate of the Year Award and the Outstanding Youth Advocate of the Year Award. Nominations for all awards must be for efforts made in the last year and are due by 11:59 PM EST on Dec. 14. For more information about the 2019 Advocacy Awards, visit PTA.org/AdvocacyAwards.

Submit a nomination today to honor the outstanding advocacy work PTA members have done across the country! We look forward to recognizing our outstanding PTA advocates at LegCon!

Filed Under: Advocacy, PTA Spotlights Tagged With: ,

We Need All Voices at the Table When Discussing School Safety

May 21, 2018 By Leave a Comment

We were deeply saddened to hear about the tragic school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas on Friday. It was the second shooting at a high school in the past week and the second mass shooting at a school this year. Every student deserves to learn and grow in a safe environment, and no parent should fear for the safety of their child every time they leave home for school. More must be done immediately to keep our children safe.

After the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, President Trump established the Federal School Safety Commission led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Secretary DeVos held an informal school safety meeting last Thursday to discuss lessons learned from previous school shootings. Today, the Department of Education released a video from the meeting.

We greatly appreciate the Secretary’s commitment to addressing school safety. School safety is a critical priority for all parents, educators, students and community members that should be urgently addressed. While we were pleased that the announcement of the Federal School Safety Commission mentioned the importance of input from students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders as part of the Commission’s work, the commission has not yet publicly announced opportunities for stakeholders to meaningfully engage with the Commission. We urge Secretary DeVos and the Commission to include parents and educators in all aspects of their work.

National PTA—along with 7 other national organizations—sent a letter to Secretary DeVos urging the secretary to meaningfully engage stakeholders in the Commission’s work. It is imperative that the voices of those who attend, work in, and send their children daily to our nations’ schools are intimately involved in these conversations at the federal, state and local levels.

We know that parent engagement is indispensable to an effective public dialogue. Parents are critical stakeholders in education issues who are reflective of their communities and provide invaluable input and perspective as the key consumers of educational systems along with their children. From our experiences with ESSA and other education initiatives, we have learned that engaging all stakeholders, including parents, is essential throughout the entire policy development process.

Our association recently joined the National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of School Resource Officers, National Association of Secondary School Principals, School Social Work Association of America, American School Counselor Association and National Association of Elementary School Principals to release “Considerations and Action Steps for Implementing the Framework,” a supplemental to A Framework for Safe and Successful Schools. National PTA hopes the Commission will advance evidence-based policy and best practices in creating safe schools in states and districts across the country.

As one of the primary consumers of our nation’s education system, parents are essential partners in education who must be brought to the table to improve school safety. Make your voice heard on this important issue by sending your comments and recommendations related to school safety to safety@ed.gov. We also encourage you to reach out to your child’s school and local education leaders to learn more current school safety measures and policies and collaborate with them on ways to improve the school environment.

Stay tuned to National PTA’s Twitter and Facebook page for more information on the activities of the school safety commission.

Hannah Engle is the Government Affairs Coordinator for National PTA.

Filed Under: Advocacy Tagged With: ,

The Military Education Savings Account Act: Detrimental to Public Schools and Families

April 30, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) and Senators Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced House and Senate versions of the Military Education Savings Accounts Act (HR 5199 / S 2517). This bill would create an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that would allow children with an active-duty parent in the military to use a voucher to attend a private school.  National PTA opposes this bill as it would divert much-needed public funds away from public schools and into the hands of unaccountable private schools.

ESAs are simply private school vouchers by another name. They shift public money—in this case, federal taxpayer dollars that would otherwise be used to fund public schools—to expenses including private school tuition and homeschooling. National PTA opposes any use of public dollars to fund private schools. We must adequately invest in public education and strengthen our system of public schools, not divert public school funding into private schools that are not accountable to the public and create division and separation throughout the community.

Like all voucher programs, this program would undermine public education and harm students. However, this military ESA program has additional problems unique to its funding and the population it would impact.

This voucher program would divert federal funding from Impact Aid

Impact Aid is a program that helps fund school districts that lose local tax revenue (which traditionally funds public schools) because their district includes federal tax-exempt land such as military bases, national parks, Native American reservations or federal housing.

Reducing Impact Aid funding for public schools and funneling those dollars to private schools would significantly undermine the public schools that serve the majority of military-connected students. It would leave those students, as well as the non-military children at these public schools, to attend a school with fewer resources.

This voucher program will not benefit most military families

The voucher program would only benefit those families who can afford to enroll their children in private schools. The voucher amount is $2,500 (with a small percentage of $4,500 vouchers available for students in “heavily impacted districts”), but the average annual cost of a private elementary school is $7,700 and high school is $13,030. Military families would be left to pay the remainder of the tuition.

Military families do not want this voucher program

Groups representing military families, Native American students and public schools oppose this proposal. These groups include organizations such as the National Military Family Association and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).  The National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) and NMFA explain, “the proposal is a bad deal for military families—and a disaster for local public school districts charged with educating our nation’s children.”

The men and women who serve our country deserve excellent public schools for their children—not private school vouchers, which undermine religious freedom, strip students of rights and protections, lead to declines in students’ education outcomes and lack accountability to taxpayers. To learn more about this proposal and how it would be detrimental to public schools, visit the National Coalition for Public Education’s page on vouchers for military-connected students. And to learn more about National PTA’s positions on vouchers, visit our website.

Founded in 1978, the National Coalition for Public Education supports public schools and opposes the funneling of public money to private and religious schools through vouchers, tuition tax credits, education savings accounts, and portability. 

Filed Under: Advocacy, Slider Tagged With: , , ,