Wilson Names Ex-Legislator Bergeson to Be State’s Secretary of Education

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday appointed longtime political ally Marian Bergeson, an Orange County conservative who has criticized bilingual education and supported giving parents tuition vouchers for private schools, as his top education advisor.

Wilson is expected to seek a voucher program during his last two years in office, and Bergeson, 71, said she will push the governor’s agenda.

A former teacher known for her librarian-like decorum and political skills, Bergeson will replace Maureen DiMarco, a Democrat from Garden Grove who resigned after having served as Wilson’s secretary of child development and education since he took office six years ago.

“There’s a renaissance waiting to happen throughout California’s classrooms, and I just can’t wait to get started,” Bergeson said.

Administration officials said the appointment would enable Wilson to continue to strike such themes as increasing the choices available to parents--by giving them vouchers and expanding the state’s charter and single-gender school programs. In addition, Wilson plans to back high academic standards through the development of a new testing program, to refocus reading instruction on basic skills and to pour more money into his popular effort to reduce class sizes in the primary grades.

Wilson said Bergeson--a former school board member who spent 16 years in the Legislature and now sits on the Orange County Board of Supervisors--”brings to this office the best of both worlds in terms of preparation.”

“She fully understands the byzantine world of educational policy and politics,” he said. “More importantly, she is herself an educator who . . . knows what it’s like to stand in front of a classroom.”

Wilson denied reports that the more liberal DiMarco had been asked to leave. He said he will miss her “dedication to improving the lives and quality of education for our youngest Californians.”

Bergeson’s appointment to the $115,000-a-year post comes as state schools ride a wave of rising educational spending generated by an improving economy.

She said she hopes to ensure that children are able to compete for jobs by emphasizing math, science and the use of phonics in reading instruction while bringing “the best and brightest teachers into the classroom.”

The appointment requires no legislative confirmation, thus avoiding a repeat of the controversy that erupted three years ago when Wilson nominated Bergeson, then a state senator, to be superintendent of public instruction after a conflict-of-interest conviction forced former schools chief Bill Honig to resign.

In a snub that embittered Bergeson, the Democrat-controlled Assembly--backed by teachers unions and various minority groups--rejected the appointment. Critics forced Bergeson to deny that she was a racist who would introduce the biblical doctrine of creationism to the public schools.

But leading education figures said Tuesday that they looked forward to working with the Bergeson-Wilson team.

“We disagree on some things, like the tax cut, opportunity scholarships and same-gender schools, but we’ve not let that get in the way,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, who chaired the Assembly committee that rejected Bergeson in 1993.

Lois Tinson, the president of the California Teachers Assn., promised to “reach out” to Bergeson, but said the union would not back away from its opposition to vouchers.

Mary Bergan, the president of the California Federation of Teachers, said Bergeson had a productive relationship with the union while she was a legislator. She said Bergeson carried a bill to allow previous work experience to count toward teaching credentials. But “we were finding less common ground as she was in the Legislature longer” and seemed to become more conservative, Bergan said.

While in the state Senate, Bergeson unsuccessfully proposed issuing vouchers enabling students at poorly performing schools to transfer to better public ones or nonreligious private ones.

Wilson proposed a similar measure earlier this year but was unable to get it passed.

The only point of contention between the governor and Bergeson at a news conference Tuesday came on the issue of educating children of illegal immigrants.

Wilson is a strong backer of efforts in Congress to strip children of educational privileges if they are in the country illegally. Bergeson, however, said pulling children out of classrooms would be difficult.