When Vanity Helps : The surcharge on personalized license plates is used to fund environmental programs, including grants for schools.

Next time you fill out a car registration form at the DMV, pause when you get to the box asking if you want a “personalized” license plate rather than an anonymous number. Pause and think about the environment.

Now, I know that most of us are only thinking, “Do I want my plates to say NEW-MBA?” But beyond that, beyond vanity plates themselves, is something altruistic.

The surcharge collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles when you and I opt to have vanity plates ($35 to apply and $20 annually to maintain the plate) amounts to a whopping $35 million each year. The vast bulk of these funds go to environmental programs such as the state Air Resources Board, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Wildlife Conservation Board. The Coastal Commission also gets money--just over $1 million--to support its work. Last week, it handed down a landmark decision banning private memberships at public golf courses that have public access to the beach.

But today’s column is about something that started back in 1970. In the glow of the first Earth Day, the Legislature decided, “without long-term funding . . . environmental education will remain a stepchild of the crowded family of public education.”

Since then, grants have been awarded annually to schools for courses, equipment and facilities to promote environmental awareness. The mandated annual minimum is $500,000. But for the present fiscal year, it has gone up to $800,000.

Even though the individual grants have been modest--a few thousand dollars each--they have served to jump-start environmental programs in local schools.

The annual Environmental Energy Fair put on by the Ventura County school board has enjoyed seven years of support from the license plate fund.

In Ventura, Foster School kids last year got a firsthand look at the environmental aspects of Native American lifestyles on field trips organized by the PTA using license plate funds.

Sinaloa Junior High in Simi Valley won a grant to supplement its science program with an interactive video disc player, a TV monitor plus videodiscs on environmental topics.

“I’m working on fish in the classroom and plan to use the Cousteau disc,” science teacher Bonnie Kaufman-Averill said. “In my science class for kids with limited English I can put the ‘Bio-Sci-Disc’ still pictures on the monitor. It’s better than drawing on the board when telling them what to look for in the microscope work on pond water.”

Her colleague, Karl Thieme, has linked the Bio-Sci-Disc to an Apple computer to create “interactive TV which they enjoy--definitely a hit,” Kaufman-Averill said.

The equipment is also being used throughout the school to teach additional subjects.

Today’s FYI box lists two highly respected sources for environmental teaching materials. These are the places schools or PTA groups often spend their license plate grant money. Teachers or PTA groups interested in grants should call the state Department of Education for advice.

A spokesman for the program said the practice of receiving applications late in the spring is going to be changed. He said now is the time for teachers to begin developing their environmental projects for early submission.

The rest of us can start thinking up slogans for our next personal plates, now that we can be “BEAMER” or “FOXY” with a clear conscience.

* FYI

For California Department of Education--Environmental Education License Plate Grant Program information, call (916) 657-2761. Teachers and PTA members should call now for applications. Funds go directly to the site of the environmental projects chosen. Recently, winners have acquired special materials from the following sources:

CE-PUP is the acronym for Chemical Education for Public Understanding Program, a nationwide outreach project of the prestigious Lawrence Hall of Science. The Southern California number is (619) 749-8177. The project specializes in water testing kits for schoolchildren to use in investigating their real-world environment.

The Life Lab “Science Through Gardening” project, (408) 459-2001, provides outstanding materials and training for schools and PTA groups that want to develop or expand science class gardens or “plant boxes” at schools.