Wilson Says State Already Has Affirmative Action Alternative : Education: Critics charge that programs are poorly funded. One regent calls the governor’s plan ‘an impossible dream.’

Gov. Pete Wilson, continuing his fight against affirmative action programs, insisted Tuesday that California already has an alternative program to prepare minority youths for college on merit alone.

But critics said that Wilson’s alternatives are poorly financed at best and do not always accomplish what he says, and a Republican University of California regent who supports affirmative action called his plan “an impossible dream.”

Wilson reiterated his alternative to affirmative action at a Burbank news conference called to attack his opponents on the volatile issue and to accuse the Clinton Administration of engaging in “political blackmail.”

The White House had said it would review federal aid programs in the wake of last Thursday’s action by the UC Board of Regents, at Wilson’s behest, to eliminate affirmative action programs in admissions, hiring and contracting.

Wilson read a three-page statement in which he declared that what California must do instead of affirmative action is to prepare every child of every race “so that they can compete and win on the basis of individual merit.”

“We must prepare them with decent childhood health care beginning with prenatal care,” Wilson said. “We must give them a quality education, and financial assistance to the needy, legal applicants for a higher education--all things that we are doing in California.”

Even more important, Wilson said, is parental guidance. In cases where the child is in a home with no parent, “we’ve got to find a surrogate parent, a mentor,” he said.

Wilson has said the state public education system needs a total overhaul and his prenatal care and childhood health care programs are just getting started.

The BabyCal program is informational only, to encourage young pregnant women to see a doctor, a state Department of Health Services official said. It does not actually give poor women examinations or treatment, she added.

The Healthy Start program has reached about 10% of the 350,000 children who are potentially eligible, a Department of Education official said.

Even so, Wilson rejected any suggestion that it would take years before such programs could have a significant impact in preparing large numbers of poor or disadvantaged young people to enter college.

Mentor programs are available now, he said.

“The groups called 100 Black Men--they are engaged in the business of finding kids in junior high school and ensuring that they stay in school, that they study, that they achieve their potential and their specific goal is to aim those kids at the University of California.”

But an official of 100 Black Men of Los Angeles said its black scholars program assists only students who are completing high school and are qualified to enter college or have already been accepted. They must have a 3.0 grade-point average, the equivalent of a B, to be admitted to the program, Cab Marcos said.

The program has helped about 1,500 youths through workshops, internships and other contacts with the 190 business and professional members of the group at a cost of about $200,000, Marcos said. Wilson met with the group during his 1990 campaign for governor and the organization has honored Wilson at an annual banquet since then.

Marcos said the group has considered a program to help younger children, such as junior high students, but decided it was too expensive.

Republican Regent Roy T. Brophy, who voted to retain affirmative action programs, said Wilson’s proposed alternative plan was impossible to achieve in difficult fiscal times.

“Without the money, how in the world can you talk about new programs?” Brophy asked.

Asked Tuesday about the ability of California’s public school system to prepare students for the university, Wilson said that “in some districts we are conducting superb education, but the quality is erratic.” He said he was working to increase per-pupil spending, but Democrats have accused Wilson of consistently underfunding the public schools.

At the regents meeting, Wilson had said there are good schools in California suburbs but not in the cities. Democrat Delaine Eastin, the state superintendent of public instruction, retorted: “The schools in the suburbs aren’t any good either.”

In attacking the White House, Wilson was criticizing the Clinton Administration’s announcement that it would review federal aid to UC in light of the regents’ decision to end affirmative action programs.

White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Sunday that “we are going to be reviewing our contract laws” to see if the UC action violated the conditions under which the university receives federal funds.

By late Monday, the Administration had backed off from even that position, saying there is little likelihood that any substantial amount of federal funds were jeopardized.

Still, Wilson, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, released copies of a letter he sent to Clinton on Tuesday and demanded that Clinton clarify “the validity” of Panetta’s threat. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry said Wilson was trying to make an issue where there was no issue.

Times staff writers Amy Wallace and Elaine Woo in Los Angeles and Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this story.