Wilson Unveils School, Health Plan for Poor : Government: The $85-million package would fund ‘preventive’ programs such as Head Start preschooling and immunization for children. Critics say the plan ignores other educational needs.

Gov. Pete Wilson gave a boost to his “preventive government” theme Tuesday by proposing an $85-million legislative package that is intended to improve conditions for the state’s poor children.

Accompanied by legislators from both parties, Wilson visited Freeport Elementary School, in a low-income South Sacramento neighborhood, to unveil the series of bills that would provide new or expanded services to prevent physical, mental and social problems before they start. They would provide:

* $50 million in state money in addition to the $186-million federal appropriation for Head Start, a preschool program intended to prepare pupils for formal schooling.

* $20 million for Healthy Start, to provide immunizations and other basic health services for children.

* $10 million for early mental health counseling.

* $5 million to recruit, train and place volunteer “mentors” to assist in California classrooms.

Passage of these bills and the others that make up Wilson’s 10-point prevention program would provide low-income and low-achieving children with the help they need to stay in school and do well, the governor said.

“So much of what is wrong with the state has been (due to) the failure to provide kids with the learning and social skills they’re going to need,” Wilson told reporters after touring a health clinic and a social services office on the school grounds.

Much of the work should be done in school, he added, because “kids spend more than half of their time there. . . . If you’re going to reach them, this is the place to reach them, here at school.”

The Sacramento clinic, which is scheduled to open in April, will provide medical help for Freeport students and their families three days a week, school Principal Lorraine Emery said. At present, a nurse visits the school only once a week.

In a portable classroom, two social workers and two students from Cal State Sacramento, offer counseling and other help to students with serious behavior problems. However, Ida Martinez and Mary Loggins, the social workers, said the need far exceeds their ability to provide services.

“We can’t begin to service all the students,” Loggins said.

The health clinic and the social services program are financed by the city and county of Sacramento and by Cities in Schools, a private group of the kind that Wilson hopes will help pay for some of the improved medical and social services he wants to introduce in California schools.

Three Republicans--state Sens. Becky Morgan (R-Menlo Park) and Bill Leonard (R-Big Bear) and Assemblywoman Bev Hansen (R-Santa Rosa)--and Democrat state Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) visited the school with Wilson. They will introduce the prevention legislation.

“I don’t think we’re going to run into great opposition in the Legislature,” the governor said. “This is a bipartisan good idea and that seems to be the way it is being accepted.”

Not entirely.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the governor’s prevention programs “are very worthwhile and I want to nurture these kinds of initiatives, but, given the size of the (budget) deficit, there has to be a balancing of basic educational support with these new programs.”

Hart pointed out that Wilson has proposed a $2-billion cut in basic public school spending in the 1991-92 budget year, as well as suspension of the Proposition 98 school funding guarantee, but is suggesting less than $200 million in new prevention programs.

“We need a better balance,” he said. “There has to be some new revenue but that hasn’t been seriously addressed as yet.”

Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City), chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee, said, “Everybody is excited about (Wilson’s) prevention approach . . . but there is some concern that in order to finance these initiatives, he is going to cannibalize other programs.”

She noted that the $85 million needed for the programs Wilson proposed on Tuesday roughly equals the money he has cut from the education budget that was earmarked for class size reduction and for “mentor teachers,” experienced teachers who are paid higher salaries to train less experienced colleagues.

Ed Foglia, president of the California Teachers Assn., said, “I don’t want to sound like the governor isn’t trying to do useful things but it’s obvious what he has planned for prevention isn’t going to be done with $85 million--that’s ridiculous.”

Amy Albright, spokeswoman for Maureen DiMarco, secretary of child development and education, said the $85 million is part of $188 million the governor has proposed for prevention programs in the next budget year. Albright said the Wilson Administration plans to provide full funding for the preschool program and to expand funding for the other programs, over a five-year period.