DiMarco to Run Children’s Services : Education: Gov.-elect Wilson warns that his new Cabinet secretary cannot be expected to work miracles in time of economic difficulty.

Gov.-elect Pete Wilson on Friday named a Cabinet secretary to coordinate children’s services and education policy but cautioned that Maureen DiMarco should not be expected to save crucial state programs from budget cuts.

“She is not a miracle worker,” Wilson said of DiMarco, a Democrat and trustee of the Garden Grove Unified School District in Orange County. “We are in an economic downturn. The decisions that are made are obviously beyond her control and beyond mine.”

Wilson said he would not reveal until he proposes his first budget in January how much money he will allot for DiMarco’s office or for the programs he wants her to implement. The budget Wilson’s aides are preparing is expected to be as much as $5 billion short of what is needed to continue state services at existing levels.

Wilson said he hopes DiMarco will be able to pursue several new initiatives “without major costs” that will be aimed at decreasing drug abuse and home problems that afflict many schoolchildren.

“I am sending a very clear and explicit message that education and other services we provide children are of enormous importance,” Wilson said at a news conference with DiMarco at his transition office.

DiMarco declined to comment in detail about her plans for the new job. She said she wants to “take the governor-elect’s vision and start making it real.”

The announcement makes good on Wilson’s campaign pledge, delivered a year ago, in which he promised to integrate health and social services with the public schools.

Wilson is free to establish the new position as an adviser to the governor. But the job will have little authority unless the Legislature, as expected, approves a bill to shift responsibility for programs within the executive branch.

Wilson said DiMarco, at least initially, will not be “burdened” with running any specific departments.

“What I am looking for instead is for her to develop some things which are not now in being and which are rather ambitious,” he said.

The Republican U.S. senator, who takes office as governor on Jan. 7, said DiMarco will be responsible for coordinating programs from prenatal care to preschool education and will establish a statewide mentor program in which volunteers will counsel children who do not have parents or relatives to help them through school.

“We can no longer afford to engage in the kind of remedial effort that carries with it tremendous fiscal costs, but, more importantly, unacceptably high human costs,” Wilson said.

DiMarco noted that barely more than 10% of the state’s children live in “traditional” home environments and that one in four live in poverty. Drug abuse and teen-age pregnancy are also rampant, she said.

“Those are huge problems,” she said. “If you think about a child who has any one of those conditions trying to come to school and learn, it’s just not possible. Educators are very frustrated. They are ready and willing to do the job. They want to make sure the child is ready to learn.”