Backers of Private-School Initiative to Sue Two County Districts : Education: They contend that taxpayer money was illegally used in opposing the measure.

The sponsors of a proposed ballot initiative that would use public funds to help send children to private schools planned to sue two Orange County school districts today, contending that they illegally used taxpayer money to oppose the measure.

The Excellence Through Choice in Education League, also called ExCEL, argues in its lawsuit that Magnolia School District in Anaheim and Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Mission Viejo violated state law by circulating newsletters urging parents to oppose the Parental Choice Initiative.

ExCEL planned to seek a temporary restraining order today in Orange County Superior Court, barring the districts from using public resources to take a stand on the issue. In addition, the group wants the Saddleback Valley school board to rescind its resolution opposing the measure.

Earlier this month, ExCEL directed similar attacks against Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas and the Los Angeles Unified School District, winning court orders prohibiting use of public funds to rally opposition to the initiative. Kevin Teasley, vice chairman of ExCEL, said additional school districts are already targeted in San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“It’s taking valuable public funds and resources and time away from the children and putting it toward something that’s political,” Teasley said. “It’s just completely out of line, in our view. It’s just as bad as sending a Republican or a Democratic party flyer home with children. That’s just not done.”

Backers of the Parental Choice Initiative are trying to gather 615,958 valid signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot. So far, they have more than 700,000 signatures, Teasley said.

The measure would provide state-funded scholarships or vouchers worth about $2,500 for each school-age child, which could be applied toward tuition at private or parochial schools. Supporters say the initiative would force public schools to improve their programs because they would have to compete for students with private schools.

But school boards across the state--including at least 10 in Orange County, including Saddleback Valley and Magnolia--have denounced the measure, saying it would decimate a public school system already reeling from budget cuts.

In its Orange County lawsuit, ExCEL took issue with papers that circulated in the Magnolia and Saddleback Valley districts, urging defeat of the Parental Choice Initiative.

Magnolia’s, issued last month as part of a quarterly newsletter to parents, says the measure would “lead to chaos in public education by draining billions of tax dollars” from schools. Supt. Arch J. Haskins said he “probably made a mistake” in allowing its release, since the newsletter is produced with district money.

ExCEL’s lawsuit said teachers in Magnolia also gave their students flyers opposing the measure.

Saddleback Valley Supt. Peter Hartman said a copy of the school board resolution opposing the Parental Choice Initiative was reproduced in a newsletter sent to parents by the district’s principals. But according to the district’s legal advice, Hartman said, that was “legal and proper.”

Ronald Wenkart, chief counsel for the Orange County Department of Education, said that he agrees that districts must not use public funds to campaign for a political issue, but that constitutional guarantees of free speech “absolutely” entitle school boards to pass resolutions taking stands on various issues.