National PTA, a household name in education, has veered so far away from its original purpose that its reputation no longer stands on its own. Its sad, but dangerous, transformation has ominous implications for parents and good teachers, and especially for youngsters in our schools.

The organization can no longer rely on word-of-mouth support from parents and teachers, so it has gone to social messaging and sloganeering to push such phrases as “every child, one voice,” a soft placation to parents implying the PTA supports all children. The sad fact is, the new PTA doesn’t.

So why is a parent teacher association trying to project an image through slogans and tag lines? We can learn much by just following the money. PTA derives much of its income from sources that lean heavily on it to represent their left-wing views. And as it’s proven in recent years, it doesn’t need much encouragement.

The No. 1 beneficiaries of PTA’s influence are the national teachers unions, which are far-left political fundraising organizations that are not only not real unions but don’t represent teachers.

And who really supports PTA? These same so-called teachers unions! And shockingly, according to PTA’s 2021 annual report, highly controversial partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the CDC Foundation, Google, Facebook, and TikTok. Such partner support makes up a staggering 66% of National PTA’s revenue. Alas, one would be hard-pressed even to call PTA a membership organization anymore.

So, when did this membership-run PTA take a detour?

There was a mass exodus from PTA in the 1970s as the unions were moving PTA away from its principled family and teacher support and turning it into a lobbying arm of the unions, according to Charlene Haar, author of The Politics of the PTA.

Haar, who conducted internal research on PTA, reports that even the unions themselves state frankly that teachers unions don’t have credibility. Haar quotes a union leader who tellingly admitted, “The PTA has credibility. That is why we always use the PTA as a front.”

The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers forced National PTA into a “neutrality stance,” Haar stated. In other words, PTA could not challenge or contradict any union politics, positions, or laws.

So, PTA lost its independence. Through this forced “neutrality,” PTA was rendered helpless to help “every child” and voiceless with its “one voice,” but quite useful for broadcasting union-controlled, slick, “trustworthy” messaging. It eventually propped up its union- and partner-funded reputation with a huge advertising campaign of catchy, endearing, and cunning slogans and trademarked tag lines.

PTA slogans are catchy, generally recognizable, and appealing — but deceptive. For example, the slogan “125 Years of Advocating for Children” is pure propaganda. PTA does “advocate,” but not to help or protect children, nor to support their parents. Instead, it protects and even publicly supports policies that harm children, such as allowing boys to dominate girls’ sports and invade girls’ locker rooms.

PTA even coordinates with Planned Parenthood, the California Teachers Association, and the ACLU, among other “highly political organizations,” as noted by author Rebecca Friedrichs in her book Standing Up to Goliath. Rather than supporting parents, it prevents them from “demanding full transparency and protection for their children” in relation to inappropriate, deviant, sexual content being inserted into the curriculum at school.

According to Friedrichs, PTA recently supported the California Healthy Youth Act, which “forbids parents the ‘opt-in’ authority before their children are indoctrinated by inappropriate sex education curriculums.”

So, PTA shields and safeguards perverse, sexualized lessons being taught to our children and purposefully ignores parents and traumatized children who are forced to conform to such pornography.

Evidently, PTA doesn’t have any use for parent or teacher power.

And the most disturbing PTA slogan, “Changing Children’s Lives Since 1897,” is actually true. PTA is most certainly changing children: transforming them into sexualized, social justice warriors who stand ready to attack traditional values. By repeating diversity, equity, and inclusion messaging, PTA is assisting in brainwashing our children to absorb these terms into their subconscious.

National PTA isn’t protecting children, nor is it supporting parents or teachers. It isn’t actually a parent teacher association at all. It has lost its way.

Ramona DeRyan is a former California public school teacher and a teacher ambassador at For Kids and Country . She’s joined the ranks of private teachers and tutors and supports family-based education, parent-run co-ops, classical learning, and homeschool instruction.