QUESTION:
Our school district is going to be
having a bond election in February. At
our last general membership meeting, our PTA membership voted to endorse the
bond. Is this something that we can
publish in our PTA newsletter?
ANSWER:
With respect to bond and levy
elections, PTAs can support or oppose ballot propositions (as opposed to
candidates*).
If your PTA uses “kidmail” or sends its newsletters home
with the students or uses the school website to make its newsletter available
to parents, then your newsletters are limited to publishing factual information
that does not imply opinion or ask voters to vote one way or another. For example, you can say “don’t forget to
vote on February 12”, but you can’t say “please vote yes (or no) on February
12”.
If your PTA mails its newsletters, remember that supporting
or opposing ballot propositions constitutes lobbying and as a 501(c)(3)
organization your PTA can only devote an insubstantial part of your resources
to such activities.
*WSPTA Uniform Bylaws
prohibit the PTA from supporting candidates for public office. As always, if
you have questions regarding this or any other PTA-related topic, please
contact the WSPTA office.
