TALLAHASSEE -- A majority of Florida voters don't want to spend public money on private and religious schools -- but they'll probably vote by large margins to do it in November, anyway, according to a new poll.

The reason: A tactical decision by the state Taxation and Budget Reform Commission to combine private-school vouchers with a proposal to ensure that 65 percent of every education dollar is spent in the classroom.

Known as the ''65 percent solution,'' the measure is so popular that 63 percent of voters would approve the constitutional amendment if the election were held today, according to the new poll from Quinnipiac University.

But if vouchers stood alone on the ballot, only 38 percent of voters would favor it, with 56 percent opposed, the poll found.

''The incredible power of the 65 percent solution is that people will vote for something they don't much like to get it,'' said Peter Brown, the Connecticut-based university poll director who regularly surveys the largest swing state in the nation.

The findings encouraged voucher supporters, bothered the state teachers' union and presaged a potentially tough campaign during a presidential election year in which former Gov. Jeb Bush could play a side role.

Squaring off in the election battle: the ''school-choice'' movement and the teachers' union. They'll flyspeck school-board budgets, debate the meaning of ''classroom instruction'' and rail over whether the amendment is a bait-and-switch in a year when the Republican-led Legislature cut $891 million from K-12 classrooms.

FIRST FINDINGS

The poll released Tuesday was the first major survey to gauge voter attitudes about the hottest of the nine constitutional amendments on the November ballot. Among the findings:

• A proposed gay-marriage ban is just 2 percentage points shy of mustering the 60 percent voter approval needed to pass a constitutional amendment. South Florida is the only region in the state to oppose it, by a 44-53 percent margin. Other regions back the measure by 61 to 67 percent. Also, churchgoers and those without college degrees are more likely to back the measure.

• Only 50 percent of voters like the tax commission's proposal to eliminate the state-directed portion of school property taxes, replacing the revenue with budget cuts and increases in sales taxes and other taxes. About 64 percent of voters said they were familiar with the tax-swap plan.

Completed June 1, the poll of 1,625 Florida voters has an overall error margin of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

About 60 percent of people said they were dissatisfied ''with the way things are going in Florida.'' Yet Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's approval ratings remain high, at 61 percent, due to bipartisan support and a view that he has delivered on his campaign promises.

The Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers' union, has started sniping at Crist for the massive education cuts. The FEA promises a court and ballot campaign against the 65 percent-voucher plan.

Echoing school officials in Miami-Dade and Broward, FEA spokesman Mark Pudlow said most schools spend more than 65 percent of their operations money in the classroom anyway. But the number depends on the meaning of ''classroom instruction'' and whether it includes media specialists and school psychologists.

Pudlow said allowing for more public money to be spent on private schools will make things even worse.

''This doesn't make the pie any bigger. It just rearranges the pie,'' he said. ``The 65 percent solution is a Trojan horse. And what's inside is vouchers.''

TWO ISSUES JOINED

The two issues were tied together by the state Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which was loaded with school-choice supporters like lobbyist Greg Turbeville.

''The proposal deals with education spending and education policy. It made perfect sense to combine the two,'' he said.

The commission had already placed another voucher issue on the ballot to strike a provision in the state Constitution that bans public money from going ''directly or indirectly'' to religious institutions.

Neither amendment uses the word ''voucher'' or ''scholarship.'' Each amendment cancels two distinct court rulings -- from the Florida Supreme Court and an appeals court -- that stopped one of Gov. Jeb Bush's voucher programs.

A spokeswoman for Bush's pro-voucher Foundation for Florida's Future, Krisy Campbell, noted the positive results -- as well as the fact that five months of campaign season remain. She said she didn't know whether or how Bush will campaign for the amendments.

Miami Herald staff writers Nirvi Shah and Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

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