School Voucher Proponents Sue District : Education: Simi Valley Unified is accused of using public funds to fight the measure. Officials say the message was in a PTA newsletter.

The proponents of a ballot initiative that would allow parents to use public funds to send their children to private schools filed a lawsuit against the Simi Valley Unified School District on Wednesday, contending that it illegally used taxpayer money to campaign against the measure.

The lawsuit filed by the Excellence Through Choice in Education League (ExCEL) also names Simi Valley Supt. Robert Purvis and school board members Doug Crosse and Judy Barry. Others named were Don Gaudioso, principal of Valley View Junior High School, and Richard Henderson, principal of Big Springs Elementary School.

ExCEL is charging that the Simi Valley school district and those officials named violated state law by circulating newsletters to parents discouraging them from supporting the Parental Choice Initiative.

“They are using public resources and time to put out their political message,” said Kevin Teasley, vice chairman of Los Angeles-based ExCEL. In some instances, he said, “they are using children as their couriers. That is an outrage.”

This morning, ExCEL will ask a Ventura County Superior Court judge for a temporary restraining order to prohibit the Simi Valley school district from using public funds or resources to oppose the initiative, Teasley said. The group is also demanding that any public money spent on newsletters urging parents to oppose the ballot initiative be refunded to the school district.

The newsletters are the product of the Simi Valley Parent-Teacher Student Assn., not the school district, Purvis said.

“Absolutely no taxpayer funds have been spent on anti-voucher activities,” he said.

Purvis said that the PTA’s monthly newsletters are printed in the district’s print shop and that the association is allowed to use the district’s bulk-mailing permit to distribute them. However, he said, the PTA pays the district for the printing and for use of the mailing permit. In no way does the district influence what is printed in the newsletters, Purvis said.

“That’s how the PTA communicates with people,” he said. “We don’t determine what goes in the bulletin.”

Purvis said most newsletters are mailed out, but in some instances PTA members give the flyers to teachers, who in turn give them to children to take home.

One newsletter sent to parents included a flyer saying the initiative would “lead to chaos in public education by draining billions of dollars from our already financially strapped public schools.”

Crosse said his and Barry’s names were used in some newsletters, not because of their positions on the board but because they belong to a citizens group that opposes the initiative.

The measure, which ExCEL hopes to put on the November ballot, would give parents who send their children to private or parochial schools a $2,500 voucher each year.

Supporters of the initiative argue that it would create healthy competition between private and public schools and therefore improve education for all students. Opponents say it would cause middle- and upper-middle-class families to abandon public schools and divert tens of millions of dollars from the public education system. They warn that it could cost as much as $1.4 billion per year to subsidize those students already in private schools.

Last week, ExCEL filed lawsuits against the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Las Virgenes Unified School District for allegedly using public resources to fight the ballot initiative. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued temporary restraining orders prohibiting the districts from using public resources to oppose the initiative.

ExCEL filed similar suits Wednesday against the Magnolia School District in Anaheim and Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Mission Viejo, both of which were also issued restraining orders.

Teasley said ExCEL, which needs to collect 615,958 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, plans to turn in its petitions within the next few days. He said he is confident that the group will have more than enough signatures.

The deadline for the measure to qualify for the ballot is June 28, according to state officials.