WASHINGTON - The split within the black community over school vouchers will surface again next week as a new, pro-voucher group announces its plans to organize chapters in 12 cities.

The Black Alliance for Educational Options is led by former Milwaukee schools superintendent Howard Fuller, who says black leaders who oppose vouchers are ignoring poor black families who are forced to send their children to failing schools.

"Many of our leaders don't have that problem," said Fuller. "They have the same options of anyone with money and resources. They can live in communities with good schools or send their children to private schools."

In Los Angeles this week, black Democratic leaders such as California Rep. Maxine Waters questioned pro-voucher positions by vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Lieberman. He has supported experimenting with school vouchers, which would allow parents to use public funds to send their children to a private or parochial school.

Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore is steadfastly opposed to vouchers, as are teachers unions and many black leaders.

"We have stated clearly that we are against vouchers," said William Spriggs, director of research for the National Urban League.

But polling continues to show that most blacks, especially those with school-age children, support vouchers. A poll last year by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank that focuses on minority issues, showed 60 percent of blacks supporting vouchers, compared with 53 percent of the general population. The same poll showed blacks are twice as likely to rate their schools as "poor."

There are several reasons why black leaders may appear out of sync with other blacks, said David Bositis, who conducts polling for the center.

Most of the black support for vouchers comes from young blacks, many of whom don't vote. In the 1998 midterm elections, only 13 percent of black males between the ages of 18 and 24 voted compared with half of blacks over the age of 50, Bositis said.

Also, he said, black leaders are suspicious of the support for vouchers among conservative Republicans, whom they see as hostile to their interests. They also point to post-desegregation trends in many Southern states, where large numbers of white children ended up in private Christian academies.

"Guess what the whites did next," said Bositis. "They reduced the public school budgets."

Spriggs of the Urban League said polls usually fail to ask the necessary follow-up questions.

"If you ask them if they still favor vouchers if they take money away from public schools, then support drops," Spriggs said.

Fuller, who was superintendent of schools in Milwaukee from 1991 to 1995 and now operates a think tank out of Milwaukee's Marquette University, is one of the nation's most prominent black leaders supporting vouchers. He believes there are too many obstacles to expect a quick turnaround in public education.

"It's clear to us that we can't afford to lose more of our children," said Fuller, "and all over this country we believe that poor, black children are not being properly educated."

At a Thursday news conference, he will announce a board of 28 people from 14 states who plan to organize chapters across the country by the end of next year.

One board member is T. Willard Fare, president of the Urban League of Greater Miami, which is alone among the 115 national Urban League affiliates in supporting vouchers, according to Spriggs.

"I'm probably in trouble with national (Urban League)," said Fare, "but that's not unusual."

Until urban public schools are fixed, black parents need the same options enjoyed by middle class white families, Fare said.

"I'll bet you if Democrats had come up with the alternative of vouchers," Fare said, "black leaders would be dancing in the streets."