School Funding, Initiative Focus of PTA Convention : Education: More than 4,500 members of parent-teacher associations statewide gather in Anaheim to find ways to turn their concerns into political action.

More than 4,500 leaders of parent-teacher associations statewide crowded into the Disneyland Hotel and the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday looking for ways to turn their concerns about California’s public school system into political action.

Parents and teachers attending the California State PTA’s 93rd annual convention, which runs through the weekend, will address a wide variety of issues, with much of the focus on cuts in state education funding and a proposed initiative that would allow parents to decide where to send their children to school.

Under the so-called parental choice initiative, parents would have the option of sending children to private schools with a $2,500, state-funded voucher. The initiative, for which supporters have launched a petition drive to get it on the November ballot, is considered by some to be a potentially discriminatory way for private schools--which do not have the open-admissions requirements of public institutions--to lure away top students.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, who opposes the initiative, drew a packed room of PTA members when he spoke on the controversial issue Friday.

“They want to be able to screen out youngsters,” Honig said of the private-school system. “This issue is not going to go away, and we have to really think through what kind of system we want.”

Audrey Smith, president of the Brea PTA Council and one of about 500 Orange County members who attended, agreed.

“I think it will be the death of public education,” Smith said. “Choice sounds good to me. I don’t want government involved too much, but if the government doesn’t get involved, there’s no accountability” of private schools.

Conventioneers also spent much of Friday discussing the state funding crisis, which many said will be particularly felt by local PTAs.

“Schools are looking more and more to the PTA for funding, getting bullhorns for schoolyard teachers, getting books and things like that. We’re trying to get away from that,” said Denice Heredia-Wagner, a PTA president at a Riverside County school.

Pam Wegner, a nursing adviser for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said during a seminar Friday that this year “is the worst of times in terms of funding.”

“We know we can’t do it on the few dollars we have. The bad news is even though we can get very revolutionary about how we serve children, there’s not going to be enough money,” she said. “All I can say to you is take your family values and what you believe in and get into the political arena.”

The PTA will try to flex its political muscle today by voting on three resolutions to establish hot weather standards in schools, ban alcohol advertisements on television and radio, and oppose Gov. Pete Wilson’s welfare initiative, which many say will divert money away from the neediest children. The resolutions represent the official stance the organization will take during the November general election.

PTA leaders are expected to urge the state Department of Education to conduct research on extreme heat in classrooms and to establish minimum and maximum temperatures of 68 and 85 degrees. They also adamantly oppose Gov. Wilson’s initiative, fearful that budget cuts will affect children in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.

Other issues parents and teachers discussed during seminars Friday included handling date rape among high school students, operations of school-based health clinics, and how to deal with an increasingly diverse student population within public schools.

“How do you get information to students who don’t understand English and the parents?” asked Esperanza Luna, a health coordinator for an elementary school in San Bernardino County, at one seminar. “I have a lot of Indonesian children. We’re trying to get into more of their languages. Parents need to be educated in their own language and know what’s going on--that’s my concern.”