Voucher Backers Claim Success : Education: They say initiative to use public funds for private schools has enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Sponsors of a proposed voter initiative that would give parents tax dollars to pay for private schools say they have gathered enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Kevin Teasley, campaign director for the Parental Choice Initiative, said Thursday that more than 900,000 names of registered voters will be turned in to the secretary of state’s office next week.

The initiative would change the state Constitution to provide vouchers worth about $2,500 a year to every California school-age child, beginning in July, 1993. The money could be used to pay private or church school tuitions; immediately for students switching from public schools and two years later for those enrolled in private schools.

Opponents argue that the measure would cripple public schools by siphoning off at least $1.5 billion a year in state support, which this year totals $16.4 billion, and allowing it to go to “unregulated, unaccountable private institutions.”

Proponents say the initiative would help public schools by relieving the pressure of rapidly growing enrollments and by providing educational models and alternatives.

As recently as two weeks ago, some initiative supporters were gloomy about chances of making the November ballot and were beginning to look to their next opportunity, in June, 1994.

But a source close to the voucher campaign said Thursday that about 940,000 names will have been obtained by next week, 650,000 by paid signature gatherers and the rest by volunteers.

This is more than enough to produce the 615,958 valid signatures needed to qualify the initiative, the source said.

Officials of the California Teachers Assn. and other educational organizations that oppose the measure remain skeptical that it will qualify.

“Our guess is that they will file (the names) but that they won’t have enough valid signatures,” said Ned Hopkins, executive director of the teachers group.

The petition-signing campaign has gone beyond the April 17 deadline suggested by Secretary of State March Fong Eu. But Teasley said the deadline is flexible and the measure can qualify even if some names are not submitted until the end of month.

However, Melissa Warren, a spokeswoman for Eu, said “the longer the wait, the greater the risk.”

She pointed out that when signatures are turned in late, county voting officials have less time to verify them and that some counties, including Los Angeles, have a history of taking a long time to certify signatures.

This raises the possibility that the school voucher proposal could qualify but not by June 25, the legal deadline for measures that are to appear on the November ballot. In that event, a vote on the initiative would be postponed until June, 1994, Warren said. Whether the measure qualifies for the earlier ballot will not be known until sometime in mid-June.

To avoid postponement, Teasley said, petition bearers will take to the streets, beaches and parks this weekend for a last burst of signature gathering.

Initiative sponsors have targeted Catholic churches and schools, which last year enrolled 178,010 students in kindergarten through eighth grade statewide and another 66,500 in high schools.

The California Catholic Conference, representing statewide church leadership, has remained neutral on the initiative but many bishops and pastors are supporting it vigorously.

Teasley, the initiative campaign director, said suits have been filed in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, charging local public school officials with spending tax dollars on efforts to defeat the initiative.

Initiative opponents have been trying to persuade people who signed petitions to rescind their signatures.

At a news conference Wednesday, California Teachers Assn. President Del Weber said that many signers had been “duped” by “misleading statements about this initiative” or had been manipulated into signing by paid signature gatherers.

He said such people could withdraw their names by signing “rescission forms” that are being made available by the teachers union and other education groups and sending them to county voting officials.

“Their complaints are silly,” Teasley said, “but that’s typical of their attitude toward the public--that the public would be stupid enough to sign something they don’t agree with.”