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Church & State, Sep 2000 by Benen, Steve

Voters In California And Michigan Face Referenda On Voucher Aid To Religious Schools

Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist in California's Silicon Valley, is not a big fan of his state's public schools. Draper has not only suggested that the education system may need to be privatized, he's also referred to public schools as "socialistic."

Not long ago, he sang a significantly different tune. In fact, Draper used to serve as a member of the California Board of Education. But in the 1990s, he did what a lot of other multi-millionaires do: he withdrew his four children from public schools and began paying private school tuition.

After his switch, the eccentric 42year-old entrepreneur decided to do something radical. Late last year, Draper announced that he was launching an ambitious drive to override the churchstate separation provisions of the California Constitution and make a private school tuition voucher available to every student in the nation's largest state.

Draper then paid millions of dollars for a team of signature collectors to garner the petitions necessary to get the initiative on the ballot. As a result, Proposition 38 will go before California voters Nov. 7, the second time in eight years that the state's electorate will consider the issue.

Two thousand miles away, another voucher crusade is under way, but with an entirely different cast of characters.

In Michigan, the state's Roman Catholic hierarchy has partnered with the family of Dick DeVos, the conservative Michigan millionaire who has amassed a vast fortune through the Amway Corporation, to push for a statewide voucher program of their own.

Like their ideological allies in California, voucher supporters in Michigan have succeeded in getting the issue on the November ballot, marking the third time since 1970 that Michigan voters will consider a proposal to publicly fund religious and other private schools.

For supporters of public education and church-state separation, fighting the voucher war on two fronts looms as a daunting challenge against extremely well financed competitors.

"A campaign against a voucher referendum can be helpful because it allows us to make our case against these dangerous schemes by taking our message directly to the voters," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "We've found that time and again, when people hear the whole story, common sense prevails and vouchers are rejected."

"But," Lynn added, "fighting against two statewide referenda simultaneously, particularly in two of the largest states in the nation, takes a lot more work and costs a lot more money. Add to that equation wealthy financiers on the other side and you've got a pretty difficult job."

Lynn's point highlights the unique challenge that Americans United and other voucher opponents face this election season. While no voucher referendum has ever been passed by voters, opponents have never had to take on statewide campaigns in two states at the same time. Nor have voucher supporters ever had to take on Tim Draper's millions.

While Draper has declined to tell reporters exactly how wealthy he is, he hasn't been shy about the financial commitment he's willing to make.

For example, at a recent meeting of African-American ministers in a South Central Los Angeles church, Draper announced that he would spend at least $20 million of his own money to, as he put it, "fix education" in California. Spending a small fortune on the campaign "won't cut into my lifestyle one bit," he told the audience.

Draper's quirky personality has earned almost as much attention as his finances. During the L.A. event, for example, he brought his own staffer to the church to deliver his introduction, an opening that told the ministers that Draper is "an instrument of God's hand, like Rosa Parks." Draper has even labeled himself a "freedom fighter."

Draper could not simply lobby the California legislature to pass a sweeping voucher program, even if there were a political will to do so, because of the strict language of the state constitution. Article IX of the California Constitution reads, "No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools."

Bound by the document's prohibitions, Draper drafted an initiative that amends the California Constitution and writes into stone a sweeping private school subsidy that is likely to cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

While voucher programs already in place (and under court challenge) in Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida target students from poor families or those in schools with low performance on state exams, Draper's Prop. 38 would require taxpayers to finance a $4,000 voucher to send any child to a private school, including religious schools, regardless of the student's family income or the quality of the local public school. The plan would be phased in to cover all grades by the fall of 2004.