Washington ? Like many Americans, Steve Klug likes the idea of providing school vouchers to parents that would give them a choice between public and private schools for their children. But the father of two quickly loses enthusiasm when he hears that tax-supported vouchers would probably drain money from public schools.

“Now that gets confusing,” said Klug, a 51-year-old cook from Glenellyn, Ill.

Those mixed feelings are reflected in the findings of an Associated Press poll on school vouchers. The poll conducted for the AP by ICR/International Communications Research of Media, Pa. showed people favored the idea of school vouchers to help send children to private or parochial schools by a 51-40 margin. When asked if they still support the idea if it takes money from public schools, they oppose vouchers by a 2-to-1 margin.

The proposal of funneling tax money to private and parochial schools and the likelihood that would drain money from public schools, is a hot political topic. About half those polled support the idea of school vouchers to give low-income children a choice in schools. Young adults were most likely to support such vouchers.

When the possibility is mentioned that vouchers could take money from public schools, Republican support drops to just under four in 10, independent support drops to three in 10 and Democratic support to fewer than three in 10.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that school voucher programs are constitutional if they provide parents a choice among a range of religious and secular schools. The court endorsed a 6-year-old pilot program in inner-city Cleveland that provides parents a tax-supported education stipend; parents may use the money to opt out of one of the worst-rated public school systems in the nation.

Lawmakers in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri are ready to move on voucher programs, while Congress could consider one as early as this fall for students in the District of Columbia. But it could be months or even a year or more before legislatures develop such voucher programs, officials say.

The poll of 1,011 adults was taken July 17-21 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.