Should PTOs make political endorsements?

[daylily]

City council elections will be held next week in my city. We have two republicans, three democrats and an independent running for three open seats on the council. In our city, the council appoints the school board rather than the citizens electing the school board. At a recent forum, one of the republican candidates was asked if she thought creationism should be taught in public schools. She answered yes.

I'm the PTO co-president of dd's school. There are nine public schools in the city and there's a PTO Council--sort of an uber PTO that addresses issues that face all the school PTOs. So yesterday I got an email from the president of the PTO Council. He's concerned, naturally, about the republican candidate's desire to have creationism taught in the schools, and is asking PTO people to weigh in on whether the PTO Council should issue an endorsement, presumably for the democratic candidates. What do you think? Is this appropriate?

I'm not planning to vote for Ms. Republican-Creationism, but at the same time, I'm uncomfortable with the notion of PTOs getting involved in politics. And I don't think parents would appreciate the PTO telling them how to vote.

[EFmom]

I don't have a strong feeling about whether the PTO should be endorsing candidates. Sometimes people do run solely with the idea of cutting all school funding as much as possible, so I can see where the PTO might have an opinion.

We do directly elect school board members. What our district-wide one does is to host a "meet the candidates" night, in conjunction with, of course, yet another fundraiser. People can come and ask questions and the candidates can have a printed statement available. I think this is a good idea.

Lots of organizations do endorsements. Both dh and I are in unions for educators, and both of our unions endorse people. While admittedly I almost always would have voted anyway for who they endorse, I've never felt like I was being told who I have to vote for. For goodness sake, even churches tell people who they should vote for. (I do have a big problem with that!)