4 O.C. Schoolteachers Vouch for 174 : Education: A handful of public educators says proposition gives parents incentive, choice to provide best schooling.

Christian fundamentalist Warren Fain educates his two children at home. He decries the “militant secularism” of public schools--but can’t afford tuition at an evangelical school. The $2,600 promised by the Education Vouchers Initiative sure would help.

Frustrated with public schools that did not challenge her children scholastically, Christine--who asked that her last name not be used--scraped together enough to send them to Claremont High, a prestigious private school in Garden Grove. They’ll graduate before she reaps the benefits, but Christine hopes Proposition 174 on the Nov. 2 ballot will force public schools to better serve bright children like hers.

Tom Jaramillo, whose parents were born in Mexico, backs the initiative as the only way to give poor, disenfranchised immigrants power over their children’s future.

And Fullerton City Council member Chris Norby’s support of the initiative reflects his libertarian philosophy: He likes the idea of an educational marketplace with less government and more choice.

What makes these four supporters of Proposition 174 unusual is the jobs they do each day: All four are public school teachers in Orange County.

Theirs is hardly the prevailing view. The initiative--which would give parents about $2,600 of government money per child to spend at any voucher-redeeming private, parochial or public school--is trailing by a 2-to-1 margin in statewide polls.

About 90% of California’s public school teachers oppose the initiative, according to surveys by their union, the 235,000-member California Teachers Assn. The CTA is leading the fight against Proposition 174 and has spent more than $8 million to defeat it.

Nearly drowned out by the education establishment’s loud opposition to Proposition 174, a few voices of dissent come from Orange County’s classrooms. Frank Ury, a Saddleback Valley Unified School District trustee who has launched a statewide coalition called Public Educators for School Choice, says the group has 60 members so far.

CTA Executive Director Ralph Flynn said these educators amount to no more than a blip on the political radar screen. The least of the union’s concerns is mutiny among the ranks.

“The only thing I’m surprised at is that there is as much unanimity on this issue as there is,” Flynn said. “The surprising thing is not that there are some supporting 174, but that there are so few.”

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Fain, 42, has been teaching in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District for 15 years. In his classroom at Valencia High School, each desk is weighted down with a thick English text and an equally hefty dictionary.

In a way, Fain would like to see a Bible alongside those tomes. Not so he could proselytize, but because he could include examples from the world’s religions in his lessons about literature.

He scoffs at public school teachers who cut George Washington’s speeches out of the curriculum because they include references to God, and bristles at health classes where homosexuality is presented as an alternative lifestyle.

Fain believes in traditional values, and believes all schools, public and private, should focus more on building students’ character.

“Education will always have a point of view, even if you try to be neutral,” said Fain, who attended public schools in Los Angeles County and then a private Christian college. “Ideally, the government should be out of the business of directly sponsoring schools . . . the government ought to just require that kids be educated and allow the parents to choose.” Fain’s support of the voucher initiative is, in part, motivated by self-interest: If the initiative passes, he will finally be able to put his children in a private school. But if enough students switch from public to private schools, Fain could lose his job if public school funding is reduced.

Fain said he is sure the public schools will survive--and improve.

“There’s nothing wrong with public schools if they’re more responsive to their constituents,” Fain said, adding that he would remain in public schools even if vouchers become a reality, because that’s where the most students are. “The best way to make public schools more responsive is to give the parent the ultimate choice.”

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Like Fain, Christine believes that public education needs “a shot in the arm.” She thinks Proposition 174 is the right medicine.

Christine, a special education teacher who has worked in Orange and Los Angeles counties since 1970, found the public schools unacceptable for her own children, who are 13 and 15. She looked into programs for gifted children but was dissatisfied. In public school, one teacher responded to her daughter’s advanced reading skills by having her read to other students, essentially acting as a teacher’s aide.

“They’ve lowered the standards for everyone instead of trying to raise the standards for those that are below,” Christine complained. “In order to graduate from high school in our public schools, you only have to manage a fourth-grade level in everything. I think that’s atrocious in our day and age.”

Christine, like several other teachers interviewed for this article who asked not to be identified, is afraid to go public with her critique of the school where she works. She’s told some friends how she feels about Proposition 174, but remains alone among her colleagues in opposing the CTA’s anti-voucher position.

“Everybody’s panicked,” she said. “It’s like a super brainwash thing: If you don’t vote this way you’ll be out of a job.”

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As director of the limited English program at Sonora High in Fullerton, Jaramillo, 50, spends his days working with the students and parents who, in many ways, sit at the crux of the voucher debate.

Proposition 174 backers hail the initiative as an empowerment tool for poor, minority families who now cannot afford the option of private schools. Voucher opponents argue that poor children will be left behind in public schools crippled from lost funds while middle-class children flee the system.

“Immigrant parents do not have any options on where to send their children. They’re locked in. I’m supporting (Proposition 174) strongly because it presents an option to poor people,” Jaramillo said.

“That’s one of the reasons they moved here” from Mexico, “for education,” Jaramillo pointed out. “If they have the opportunity, they’re going to use that opportunity.”

One night last week, Jaramillo’s son tagged along with him to help stuff envelopes at Orange County’s pro-174 headquarters.

Jaramillo has tried both public and private schools for his children. The two younger ones attend a Buena Park public elementary school. Worried about gangs and lack of discipline at public schools, Jaramillo recently transferred his eldest, who is 11, to a Christian school in Anaheim.

“There are a lot of regulations that prevent (public school educators) from dealing directly with students who have behavior that is unsuitable,” Jaramillo said. “There’s a lot of pressure . . . to not expel students from school, and so consequently we end up with very limited forms of disciplinary alternatives.”

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Norby’s son Alex, a fourth-generation Fullerton resident, is 3 1/2 years too young for school.

When he is old enough, Alex will attend his neighborhood public school. But his father, who is in his 10th year on the City Council, hopes that by that time, choice will be a key part of the education system.

“I basically think that any kind of a market mechanism where you place the choices of what somebody gets closer to the consumer is a good thing,” said the 43-year-old Norby, who has taught in parochial and public schools for 13 years. “The fewer middlemen you have--the fewer layers of control you have between a person and a person’s choice--the more responsive things are.”

Norby has no particular beef with Brea-Olinda High School, where he teaches U.S. history and government. Like Fain and Jaramillo, he’s confident that his school would attract more students if the voucher initiative passes, because of its strong record of success.

The point, Norby says, is choice. Competition. Supply and demand.

“As teachers, sometimes we don’t like parents to meddle, we don’t like parents to call and complain. On the other hand, we want them to come to back-to-school nights, and we want them involved with the kids,” he reflected. “This is just one step that would compel schools to see parents and kids as educational consumers and less as captive clients.

“It’s not enough any more simply to have school board elections,” he added. “Giving parents more of a choice--not just in terms of their elected officials, but more of a choice at the actual grass-roots level--is a positive thing.”