Wilson Plans His Next Front in War for Education

Gov. Pete Wilson has this military mentality. He absorbs military history and is molded by it. Once you establish a beachhead, he understands, you don’t camp out and enjoy the scenery. You battle on, seizing more territory.

You utilize every resource. Capitalize on every opportunity. Keep pounding away.

And that is what the ex-Marine now is doing on education. First, he established his beachhead as a “reformer” last year by blasting through ed establishment resistance and enacting significant class-size reduction. This year he pushed on, expanding class-size reduction to all K-3 grades. Using his most lethal weapon--the veto threat--he also pounded the Legislature into submission on his demand for statewide student testing.

On Wednesday, the Republican governor revealed his next move--a November 1998 ballot initiative that bites off substantially more ground.

I asked Wilson whether he sees education reform as his lasting legacy. “Well, I hope so,” he admitted.

“But listen, you’ve only got so much time in the job and you do as much as you can to make the [policy] changes you know are required. And if someone later thinks well of you for it, that’s nice.”

Wilson’s remaining time in the job is now down to less than 13 months.

“That’s why,” he said, “it’s essential to have the initiative.”

He’ll simultaneously try to advance his new proposals in a package of bills, but the Democratic legislative leaders aren’t exactly the governor’s foxhole buddies.

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Wilson’s initiative would:

* Cement the class-size reduction into law, making it extremely difficult ever to backtrack. That would require a vote of the people or a four-fifths majority vote of the Legislature.

* Require establishment of local “school site governing councils” dominated by parents, but also composed of teachers. The council and principal would make all decisions regarding curricula and spending.

* Require new teachers to pass competency tests in the subjects they teach. Half of today’s math and physical science teachers didn’t even minor in those subjects.

* Establish a state chief inspector of public schools, appointed by the governor for a term of 10 years. The inspector would rank each of California’s 7,000 schools based on quality, identifying strengths and weaknesses for the public.

* Invoke a zero-tolerance policy for students possessing illegal drugs. Get caught, get expelled.

No politician goes into such a battle without reconnaissance--polling--and Wilson says his surveys have found these ideas to be “quite popular.”

That’s an understatement, says one of his strategists. A November poll, he reports, showed that at least 80% of California voters favor the permanent class-size reduction, school site councils and teacher exams.

The school inspector idea--Wilson’s pet--is favored by 65%. But this could be the initiative’s Achilles’ heel. You can already anticipate the opposition: The last thing we need is another costly education bureaucracy.

The governor has tried to outflank another potential attack--that it’s a Wilson power grab--by delaying creation of the inspector until six months after he leaves the Capitol.

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Wilson came up with this school inspector notion while on an October trip to England. The Tories established such an office a few years ago and now even Labor endorses it, the governor said. Many people talked it up, including new Tory leader William Hague and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“It struck me as common sense,” Wilson told me. “You know, how often do you say: ‘Gee, why didn’t I think of that myself?’ ”

Wilson got hooked while browsing an English bookstore and finding on display a summary of the inspector’s reports for each school.

“This will provide parents with the knowledge of whether their child’s school is really measuring up,” he said. “It will go further than just testing. It will state the ‘why’ of the testing results. It may very well be that it doesn’t relate to the quality of teaching. It could be textbooks. Could be lack of parental involvement.”

The teachers unions probably will fight it. And the governor won’t mind that very much because this will reduce their campaign stash available for Democrats.

Wilson said he’ll raise money for the initiative from the high-tech industry, which is struggling to find skilled workers and is frustrated with California’s school system.

Last year, Wilson found new territory to conquer: school reform. He has recaptured some lost popularity. He hears cheers from parents. And he hears more atop the next hill.