BUSH PLAN FUELS DEBATE HYPOCRISY AN ISSUE IN VOUCHER DISPUTE.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The battle over President Bush's school voucher plan has quickly become a debate over which lawmakers talk the talk and which walk the walk.

``There's plenty of hypocrisy in Washington,'' said Megan Farnsworth, a former Burbank bilingual teacher and a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. ``Members of Congress have far more money and school choices than the general public.''

She cited a recent Heritage Foundation survey that found 49 percent of senators and 40 percent of House members send, or have sent, their kids to private schools.

Supporters of Bush's plan, which would give $1,500 per child to low- income parents whose children attend public schools that are judged to be failing, also cite the fact that recently departed voucher foes Bill Clinton and Al Gore patronized private schools for their offspring.

Democrats and others opposed to vouchers, who argue that the plan will strip public education of needed funds, see no hypocrisy on the part of lawmakers and the former president and vice president.

``Those people who have the money to do more for their kids should have the right to do so,'' said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, who received his public education in Alhambra and Newport Beach. ``And those who have children in private schools also have an obligation to work for the best possible public schools. I think Clinton and Gore did that.''

``It bothered me a little bit that the president and vice president's children did not attend public schools,'' said Wayne Johnson, president of the 312,000-member California Teachers Association. ``But whether public officials or public school teachers use public or private schools isn't the issue here. People can use private schools. But taxpayers should not have to pay for it.''

Bill and Hillary Clinton sent daughter Chelsea to Washington's private and highly rated Sidwell Friends School, where the tuition is $15,620 a year.

Al and Tipper Gore enrolled son Al Gore III at St. Alban's School, which charges $18,292 a year.

Republican voucher backers are quick to note that Bush, who had a privileged private education at Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts, sent his twin daughters to a public high school while he served as governor. The girls are now college freshmen.

The only modern president to use public schools while in office was Democrat Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalyn sent daughter Amy to a public elementary school near the White House.

The Heritage Foundation survey, conducted in May 2000, included 93 percent of Senate and 86 percent of House members. It found that 20 percent of House Democrats with school-age kids had at least one child enrolled in private school. The rate for Republicans was 32 percent.

In the Senate, 51 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Democrats had children enrolled in private schools. The names of respondents were not revealed.

The vast majority of Southern California's federal lawmakers have public school backgrounds and educated their kids in public systems. Of members with school age children, only Jane Harman, D-Torrance, has a child enrolled in a private school.

But lawmakers' attitudes about vouchers follow party lines rather than old school ties.

``I'm a strong supporter of public schools,'' said Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. ``I support school choice for parents because, in many areas, public education is a civil right that is not being carried out. With all the debate, the word voucher has such a negative connotation. We need to get past the term and think about the children, whatever we do.''

McKeon, who attended public schools in Tujunga and began his career as a Santa Clarita school board member, has been selected to chair a new House subcommittee that will handle such issue areas as teacher training and college student aid.

Sherman argued that choice is a growing phenomenon in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which offers a number of magnet programs. And he also expressed doubt that Bush could come up with an accurate measure for a failing school.

``A school where a majority of kids are poor or face challenges at home may look bad when the test scores come in, but it can still be doing a great job,'' said Sherman. ``When it comes to evaluating schools, we're going to at least have to grade on the curve.''

Voucher backers are also touting a 1995 study as proof that public school educators favor choice and that teachers unions are out of touch with their members when they oppose vouchers.

The study by the Washington-based Center for Education Reform, which supports a voucher system, found that 12 percent of public school teachers living in the nation's 100 largest urban areas send at least one of their children to private schools. The rate of private school use by all big-city families was 13 percent.

The center based its report on 1990 U.S. Census data. The group plans a follow-up survey using 2000 Census results.

Boston topped the survey, with 44.6 percent of its resident teachers opting to place at least one of their children in private schools. The rate in Los Angeles was 30.1 percent and in Glendale was 15.8 percent.

SCHOOL TIES

Here is a list of national and local public officials and where they went to high school:

President Bush: Phillips Andover Academy (Mass.)*

Vice President Dick Cheney: Natrona County H.S. (Wyo.)

Sen. Barbara Boxer: Brooklyn Public Schools (N.Y.)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Convent of the Sacred Heart H.S. (San Francisco)*

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard: Huntington Park H.S.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills: Corona del Mar H.S.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills: Hamilton H.S. (Los Angeles)

Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita: Verdugo Hills H.S.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles: Fremont H.S. (Los Angeles)

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena: Monte Vista H.S. (Danville, Calif.)

*Private or parochial

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Box: SCHOOL TIES (See text)