Wilson’s Budget Proposals

Wilson’s budget proposals, which favor education over welfare, are harsh, to say the least, but his priorities make sense considering the state of the state (“Schools, Prisons to Be Fully Funded in Wilson Budget,” Jan. 10). With or without the deficit, his argument is all the more convincing when projections indicate public schools and community colleges will receive an additional 217,914 students vs. a net gain of 248,285 welfare recipients.

Given the choice, education has precedence considering the potential future welfare burden of those whose schooling is inadequate to qualify them as jobholders.

If anything, there’s a timely message in Wilson’s proposals to reward teen-age mothers who stay in school, penalize women who have additional children while on aid and cut welfare handouts to new residents: It says, “Don’t like system? Don’t come here. Move to another state or play by the rules. We’ve got our own problems.”

To be sure, Wilson’s ideas are anathema to Democrats who would sell the state down the river to garner votes, but perhaps the dissenters should consider the growing ranks of voters who are as mad as hell about the drain of welfare costs and won’t take it anymore.

NORMAN JACOBSON, Los Angeles