Governor Wants a Father in the House

The “No. 1 problem” in America today, according to Gov. Pete Wilson, is out-of-wedlock births because they lead to a lot of other problems: welfare dependency, education failures, drug abuse, gang violence--and the next generation of teen moms.

Add to that list the spinoff of increased taxes and deteriorating lifestyles for everyone, from the unwed mom herself to Joe Middleclass, who feels threatened by her gangbanger kid.

Curbing “the crisis of out-of-wedlock births,” Wilson says, “must be our top priority.” Government can do only so much, he asserts, but it can end welfare policies that encourage teen pregnancies and discourage marriage. It also can provide financial incentives for community guidance programs. And, through TV ads and the governor’s bully pulpit, it can try to stigmatize out-of-wedlock births, as they used to be.

“There’s a popular saying that: ‘It takes an entire village to raise a child,’ ” he notes. “The fact is, the village can help, but a child’s future will really be determined by just two villagers--mom and dad.”

We’ll hear a lot about unwed and teen pregnancies--and gangs and welfare--in the governor’s annual State of the State address today.

In this speech, and also in his state budget proposal Wednesday, Wilson will unveil a new “prevention agenda.” He’ll be trying to refocus his image back to the “compassionate conservative” who attracted kudos from centrists and decent poll ratings when he first became governor five years ago.

Republican conservatives, meanwhile, will cheer his call for replacing a “flawed” welfare system. And most everybody surely will root for him against teen thugs.

“You go to L.A., turn on the evening news and it’s one carjacking or drive-by shooting after another,” Wilson said in an interview. “The best preventive I can think of is a strong family. . . .

“We have a terrible problem because a lot of kids are growing up without a father, without a male role model to give them love, direction, discipline and values--without a sense of why they should respect themselves or respect others. They’re unable to empathize. That’s why these kids can seemingly blow somebody away with not a flicker of remorse.”

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We’ve all heard the stupefying statistics: One in three California children is born out of wedlock; a generation ago, it was less than one in 10. Among teen moms, it’s two in three. As much as $7 billion is spent annually by federal and state taxpayers on welfare and health care for California families started by teens.

As for teen criminals, there are more than 1,000 street gangs in Los Angeles County alone and their membership has tripled to 150,000 in less than a generation. Gang crimes in the county have increased 20% since 1994, says the state Youth Authority.

So what does Wilson intend to do about it? Just days ago he announced the scuttling of one state program to discourage teen pregnancy--volunteer counseling classes for middle school students--because there’s no evidence it worked.

Here are some things Wilson will propose to the Legislature:

* A $15.8-million multimedia campaign aimed at stigmatizing unwed pregnancies.

* $34 million in matching grants to local private groups for programs to discourage unwed and teen pregnancies.

* $8.4 million to help district attorneys prosecute adult men who have sex with underage girls. This now is a limited program; it’ll be expanded statewide.

* $15 million to link adult role models--”mentors”--with “at-risk” youths.

And to fight gangs:

* “Zero tolerance” for gun violence. Use a gun, do time.

* $2.5 million to help prosecutors attain court injunctions banning otherwise legal activities, such as stockpiling guns.

* Release the names of minors, age 14 and older, arrested for serious crimes.

* Allow citizens to designate 1% of their state income tax for local crime fighting, raising perhaps $150 million.

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“All the most serious problems that we are complaining about as a society really come from the fact that we have women trying to raise kids without a father in the home,” Wilson told me.

For example, education: “The reason it’s so much more difficult to be a teacher today is because of [declining] parental involvement. . . . The 14-year-old mother who got knocked up is now 19 and is working at some job slinging hash and she comes home at night, turns on the TV set and tries to escape with a sitcom. She doesn’t go to Parent’s Night. Hell, she doesn’t even know about it.”

Rhetoric and ideas are cheap this time of year. They’re like a governor’s New Year’s resolutions. We’ll have to see whether all this still is “our top priority” six months from now.