VOTERS ARE SPLIT OVER MEASURES

Vouchers, Bond Issues Are On The Ballot Again

FIELD POLL California voters are divided over the merits of two
education-related measures that will be on the November ballot and strongly
favor an initiative that would require treatment programs rather than
prison for many drug offenders.

A Field Poll shows that Californians likely to cast ballots in the Nov. 7
election slightly favor a proposition that would lower the threshold for
approval of school bond issues from two-thirds to 55 percent.

After being read a summary of the proposition, 45 percent of those polled
said they would vote yes, and 41 percent said they would vote no. The lead
is statistically insignificant because it is within the poll's margin of
error of 5.8 percentage points.

Voters were evenly divided at 39 percent on each side over a plan to give
parents tax vouchers of $4,000 to send their children to public or private
school.

Such early polling numbers would normally be bad news for proponents of the
measures. Voters typically have a more favorable first impression of a
proposition than they do as the campaign progresses and the often
better-financed "no" campaigns swing into action.

This time, however, the "yes" campaigns are expected to be more than able
to hold their own financially.

The school bond initiative has the bipartisan backing of Democratic Gov.
Gray Davis and former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson along with the state's
education establishment.

As for the voucher initiative, Tim Draper, the Silicon Valley venture
capitalist who sponsored it, says he is prepared to spend $20 million to
sell it to voters.

Both of these issues have been around the electoral track before. The most
recent attempt to lower the percentage for approving school bond issues to
a simple majority was narrowly defeated in the March primary election.
Sponsors hope voters will be more receptive to the 55 percent compromise.

The first school voucher initiative was overwhelmingly rejected in a 1993
special election. Voters seem to have warmed to the idea somewhat since then.

"I found it interesting that it starts out even because that does represent
a significant change, an improvement, actually, in voter opinion of
vouchers compared to the first measure seven years ago," said Mark
DiCamillo, associate director of the Field Poll. He said the first sampling
of public opinion on the 1993 initiative showed it trailing by 10
percentage points.

The drug treatment initiative would forbid incarceration of persons
convicted of relatively minor drug offenses for the first or second time.
Rather, offenders would be directed to drug treatment programs or put on
probation.

While the measure might seem to run counter to voters' tough-on-crime
instincts, 64 percent of those polled said they would vote for the
initiative coompared to 20 percent who said they would vote against it.

DiCamillo speculated that the description of the proposition which includes
the estimate that it would save several hundred million dollars in prison
costs contributed to the support.

The statewide poll was based on telephone interviews conducted June 9
through June 18 with 642 Californians considered likely to vote in the Nov.
7 election.