“To make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.”

What actually happens at a specific school REALLY depends on who gets involved. I've seen a few parents take over for an entire school year and use it to push things only they cared about. Also seen that tried and enough other parents fight back. And also where not many parents care and teachers/admin use it to push their agenda and fund-raise for their projects.

It works best when a majority of the parents and teachers are actively involved and trying to represent the students' interests.

It becomes a clique. They form an "Us and Them" mentality.

You have to make them think that they came up with whatever idea you are trying to get across. It is like hypnotism -- say things like 'I agree with you that ____(your idea here)____"

And always expect them to favor comfort over confrontation. It may work to "good cop / bad cop" them also but you need someone who is angrier than you are and more blunt to hammer them, then you come with a nice comfortable solution.

But I don't have kids, so I'm not sure. I do know that anytime you get a group of people together, the group becomes political in some way. I don't mean political in the sense of government politics.

If, for instance, you have a PTA in a very conservative, rural area, you might have the PTA upset that the school's history books teach "liberal" ideas. But a PTA in a more liberal, urban area, yu might have PTA members upset that the school's history books don't include more history of minorities.