NEWS ANALYSIS : Wilson Buffs Image by Just Following School Funds Law

After suffering from a battered public image, Gov. Pete Wilson has scored a dramatic public relations coup merely by doing what state law and the Constitution require him to do.

The Wilson administration bombarded the media this past week with a flurry of reports on how the Republican governor would shower $1.7 billion in new money on California’s public schools system.

The chief executive whom the Democrats had tried to portray as Scrooge, particularly when it came to the schools, was dispensing the bounty of a reviving economy on the state’s educational system from kindergarten through community colleges.

In the process, Wilson may have blunted Democratic efforts to use the issue of a money-starved education system against the GOP in the fall elections.

In fact, the governor had no choice. The money would have gone to the schools no matter what he did. But Wilson seized the opportunity to frame the distribution of the money--still subject to legislative approval--in a way that made him appear to be the kindly benefactor of public education.

Dan Schnur, a political communications consultant who formerly worked for Wilson, commented: “It definitely puts him in a stronger position in terms of negotiating with the Legislature, but also more broadly in terms of building a base of public support for his agenda.”

Mervin Field, a pollster and political analyst, observed: “Wilson’s getting a free ride from this. He is Daddy Warbucks dispensing money that belongs to the kids anyway. He’s going to be helped.”

Delaine Eastin, a Democrat who is the state superintendent of public instruction, grudgingly credited the governor with “a smart strategy.” But she added, “We’re not getting a dime more than the kids were owed.”

What rarely was emphasized as the good news spread was the fact that the governor had no choice but to allocate the $1.7 billion to education as dictated by provisions of Proposition 98 and subsequent state law.

Proposition 98, approved by voters in 1988, was the constitutional amendment initiative sponsored by the California Teachers Assn. and other education groups. It guarantees that about 40% of state tax revenues, at a minimum, go to public education--kindergarten through community colleges.

From last Saturday through Tuesday, Wilson traveled to schools in Orange County and San Francisco for classroom photo opportunities, proclaiming: “Children are really what this budget is all about.”

Democrats could hardly complain about schools getting more money.

They did have problems with some of Wilson’s proposals for allocating the funds. But their complaints often sounded like bureaucratic carping compared with the magnitude of the good news.

So it was that the first sentence of a written statement Tuesday by state Supt. Eastin, a former Democratic assemblywoman, was complimentary: “This budget will provide a good boost for California schools.”

The Wilson operatives had spun out the good news in three successive daily doses leading up to a formal announcement Tuesday of the annual May update of the budget the governor submitted in January.

First there was $500 million to cut class sizes in the first and second grades throughout California, a longtime Democratic Party priority. Then there was about $200 million to beef up programs to teach children to read. And finally, Wilson offered $50,000 to every school in California, large and small, to do whatever they wanted with.

“They can use the money to buy a new roof, install computers on kids’ desks or slap a new coat of paint on the walls,” the governor said.

It sounded like Christmas in May for public education, which has suffered along with other state programs through years of recession, dwindling state revenues and budget cuts.

With the California economy recovering more dramatically than expected, state tax revenues surged well ahead of estimates--up by $2.7 billion just since January. Under terms of Proposition 98, the $1.7 billion had to go to public education.

Not until Tuesday, however, did the full budget picture emerge. To many, the news was not all that good.

First, Wilson was still pressing for a 15% cut in state personal income taxes.

A tax cut would be welcomed by taxpayers, but Democrats contend that it also would cause a decline in state revenues and trigger a Proposition 98 cut in state aid to education. Democratic budget experts have estimated the potential cuts at $6 billion, effectively offsetting all the new money that Wilson is pumping into the school budget this year. Republicans, however, predict that a tax cut will boost the economy and increase the tax base.

In an interview Thursday, schools chief Eastin was more pointedly critical of the new Wilson budget, even with all the newfound education money.

“The long-term effects are just devastating,” she said.

Also, Wilson’s revised budget proposes further cuts in welfare benefits, including aid to the aged, blind and disabled. Most Democrats, and some Republicans, adamantly oppose such reductions.

Schnur earned the nickname “Spinmeister” for his ability to put a good spin on events when he worked for Wilson. But even he was impressed with the public relations gambit forged by his successors.

“One of the oldest and best rules of press relations is to pack all the bad news together, but to stretch out the good news as long as you can,” Schnur said. “They had a good story to tell on the education front and they maximized the opportunity.”

Schnur also discussed how Wilson’s education initiative could change the nature of the budget debate with Democrats this spring and summer.

Up to now, the major Democratic argument has been that it is imprudent to talk about tax cuts when public schools are in such bad financial condition.

“The governor has now recast the terms of the debate,” Schnur said. “Instead of tax cuts versus children, it’s tax cuts and money for children versus welfare cuts. That’s a much tougher proposition for the Democrats to counter.”

Democrats still vow to kill the tax cut.

There was considerable speculation by political experts about Wilson’s motives for the education initiative. One theory was that he was drifting back to a more centrist political philosophy after seeming to move to the right during his 1994 reelection campaign and in his abortive bid for the presidency during 1995.

Wilsonians rejected such notions. He hasn’t changed, they argued. The only difference is that the state now has some money to spend on new initiatives of the sort the governor has promoted all along.

As pollster Field pondered the meaning of Wilson’s education initiatives, he noted that the governor often has complained about the strings the federal government attaches to aid to the states and local government. Still, Wilson is attempting to tell the schools how to spend the money they get from the state.

“Here’s something that has happened that’s good for education, that would have happened anyway,” Field said. “Might it have been even better if Wilson had said, ‘Here’s the money. Spend it how you want’?”