Anti-Truancy Law Hailed by Clinton

President Clinton, opening the 25th California trip of his presidency, traveled to Monrovia on Monday, offering up the San Gabriel Valley community’s efforts against truancy as proof that the slate of remedies for youth crime he has advocated will work.

Appearing at a packed Monrovia High School auditorium, Clinton praised the town for a ground-breaking anti-truancy law, its school uniform code and its youth curfew, which he said proved the value of community engagement in fighting youth crime.

“You have proved that it can be done, and it will get results,” Clinton said. “Please, please keep it up.”

Proposals to fight youth crime have become an ever more visible part of Clinton’s presidential campaign, although in most cases the federal government has no direct role in the initiatives he talks about. White House aides have tried to make Clinton a player in these issues primarily by offering support--giving localities advice on how to draft rules on uniforms, truancy and curfews without running afoul of legal requirements, for example.

Clinton is a more direct player in the other main activity of his three-day Western swing--fund-raising. Democratic party officials expect the trip to be the most lucrative tour of the year, with Clinton expected to help net the Democratic National Committee $2 million in three fund-raising appearances in the Los Angeles area Monday and another $3 million-plus from appearances in Denver on Sunday and Sacramento and San Francisco today.

Monday evening, Clinton attended a fund-raiser at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, along with a gathering organized by Asian American Democrats at the Century Plaza. He also planned to attend a late-night fund-raising party at the home of Eli Broad, the millionaire financial services executive and art collector, and his wife, Edythe.

In addition to the political potency of talking about youth crime, a subject high on the worry list of many parents, Clinton’s visit to Monrovia brought him to a “swing area” of Los Angeles County--one in which probable Republican candidate Bob Dole would have to do well in order to overcome Clinton’s current lead in statewide polls.

Local officials argue that Monrovia’s 2-year-old anti-truancy law has helped reduce truancy 42%, cut the high school dropout rate 54%, and lowered local daytime crime rates by 35%. The anti-truancy law prohibits students from being out of school without permission from a parent or teacher; 370 violators have been ordered to perform community service since the rule was instituted in 1994, officials said.

Clinton said the anti-truancy and school uniform programs are especially important in light of a rising youth crime rate that could soon be exacerbated by a huge bulge of children reaching school age.

“We have about six years to get ahead of this juvenile crime and drug problem that will be almost unbearable, unmanageable and painful,” he warned.

One Monrovia High School parent, Yolanda Gallardo, told how she joined the volunteer parents group that monitors student behavior on the school campus because of her concerns about a rise in youth crime in her community.

There was strong support from the community for the crime-fighting initiatives, she said--but she jokingly noted that she had had to overcome resistance from her own children when she advocated the school uniform policy that prevails for children in grades one through nine.

Clinton agreed: “I could go to any place in America and speak to young people and have them cheering and stomping until I mention school uniforms--and then they go, ‘No!’ ”

Monrovia also has a so-called community police program, which puts police officers on street patrol--another Clinton favorite. The city is a “sterling example” of three of the administration’s major initiatives: community policing, a tough truancy policy and school uniforms, he said, “and I want to thank you for that.”

Meanwhile, in an earlier stop in Denver, Clinton announced plans to shame deadbeat dads into supporting their children by displaying their faces on post office walls and the Internet.

Decrying such absent parents as a “moral outrage and a social disaster,” Clinton said the U.S. Postal Service would begin displaying state “wanted list” pictures and information on parents who have skipped out on their responsibilities. Seven states put out such lists of deadbeat parents, complete with photos, names and other data.

Aides to Dole countered by accusing Clinton’s administration of having been slow to prosecute deadbeat parents under a law passed in 1992 that allows federal prosecutions.

Aides said the publicity program would only be used in cases where deadbeat parents already face a court order directing them to pay up.

As an illustration, the White House released a handbill from North Carolina showing its “10 Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents.” The handbill carried the pictures of nine fathers and one mother, along with their name, whereabouts and criminal justice status.

A sullen-looking Freddie Lee Lowe Jr. was last seen in Shelby, N.C., it said, and gave his status as “Surrendered!”

In addition to that sort of publicity, Clinton said, the federal government will provide a new World Wide Web page on which users will be able to find pictures and background information on parents from the computer networks now maintained by 19 states. Spouses will also be able to use the Web site to find out how to apply for government assistance.

These steps extend a politically potent campaign against deadbeat parents that the administration has pressed since 1993. According to government officials, the number of cases in which paternity is established has increased by 40%, to 735,000 fathers, in fiscal 1995; collections are up by 40%, to $11 billion for fiscal year 1995.

Clinton acknowledged that holding child-support scofflaws up to public ridicule “may seem cruel to you.”

But he said that although people take it as routine to see posted pictures of bank robbers and other felons, “that’s not as bad as somebody who’s robbed our children. That’s the biggest robbery of all.”

Clinton called the problem of absent parents “the big hidden social crisis in America.” If all such parents paid their debts, the country could move 800,000 women and children off the welfare rolls, he contended.

Today, Clinton heads to Sacramento and San Francisco, before returning to Washington on Wednesday morning.