THE POLITICS OF THE PTA   BY CHARLENE K. HAAR:

 

Follow this link:  http://books.google.com/books?id=gXj95Q8uJwoC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=History+of+PTa+%22parent+teacher+association%22+NEA&source=bl&ots=rACXD0sXoL&sig=Os3xmL35E_ai6jEWgsgPWeIcq_0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3vdoU4XVBdKAoQS-24C4Dg&ved=0CFEQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=History%20of%20PTa%20%22parent%20teacher%20association%22%20NEA&f=false

You will pull up an excerpt from Charlene K. Haar's book on the history of the PTA.  There are several pages about the history, then it skips the middle of the book and then you will get to the associations between the PTA and the NEA.  They are irrefutable and damning. 

I am of the opinion, and have offered it many times, that the PTA has no right to be in the midst of all our public schools.  They have no right to be hovering about the principal offering opinions and supporting school board candidates, among other things.  EVERY organization has just as much right as the PTA to be milling about the principal's office!  They need to stand up for their rights.  Or better yet, toss the PTA back to the curb and let the principal do her/his job without interference from parents who have nothing better to do!

This is a great quote from the President of the National PTA in 2000:

"At a time when our country is as stable as it has ever been, when our people are employed and we are at peace, we somehow can still not address the most basic needs of our children.

I speak not to cast blame, it is not about blame or to engage in handringing [sic] despair, but to give us the motivation that we must change our country....I believe we can do that because we are PTA."

Ginny Markell

President

National PTA

2000

(One can obtain an E-copy of Haar's book on line.)

Here is an excerpt that will be of interest:

Excerpt p. 71:

Through the years, the National PTA and the NEA shared speakers, general programs, and award programs. As noted in a history of the PTA, "This cooperation with the National Education Association is carried down from the national to the state, district, and local levels. . . . [F]or example, the state president of the parent-teacher organization is made an ex oficio member of the state education association. Similar relationships are maintained all down the line." State teacher's association affiliates sometimes granted the PTA free pages in their monthly magazines. In another example of cooperative relations, the state education associations often paid the expenses of National PTA officers who visited the state."