Wilson’s Alternative to Affirmative Action : Politics: Governor says his welfare reforms would offer minorities an ‘equal playing field’ for college enrollment. He warns Jesse Jackson not to disrupt a regents meeting on the fate of admissions preferences.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Pete Wilson said Sunday that he would encourage minority enrollment in college through policies that “afford them an equal playing field†rather than affirmative action programs that assign a preference to various groups.
Wilson pointed to his welfare reform plan as the kind of “positive alternative†to affirmative action that GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked Republicans to supply before they engage in the heated debate about ethnic preference programs.
Interviewed from the state Capitol on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,†Wilson said his welfare proposals are designed to end unwed teen-age pregnancies that “brutalize†children and contribute to future generations of criminals.
“I think young people of all races in this state are gifted with native intelligence if we afford them an equal playing field,†the governor said. “The positive agenda is to assure that you are really affording a quality of opportunity.
“What we need to do is to change policies to first assure that we create every opportunity for every child to have a supportive family,†Wilson continued. “That means we need to address welfare reform to really end a tragedy in America of exploding teen-age pregnancy out of wedlock . . . and children growing up in fatherless homes producing the next generation of unwed mothers and the next generation of thugs.â€
Wilson’s interview, coming as he is negotiating with Sacramento lawmakers this weekend about the overdue state budget, kicked off a week in which the governor hopes to take his fight against affirmative action to a national audience.
He is scheduled to give a speech on the issue in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Then, on Thursday, strategists working for the governor’s presidential campaign expect Wilson will receive his biggest national spotlight of the year when he is pitted against Jesse Jackson at a meeting of the University of California’s Board of Regents. The board is scheduled to consider a plan to eliminate the system’s minority preference programs.
A stern Wilson sent a warning Sunday to Jackson, who has indicated he and his supporters will engage in civil disobedience.
“If he seeks to disrupt the meeting, as he has announced he will, then I think he will succeed in being detained,†Wilson said. “We are not going to put up with the kind of threats to disrupt a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Regents. He can’t succeed. This is going to go off on the basis of the merits of the argument.â€
Wilson’s stand against affirmative action, in contrast to his support for the programs when he was mayor of San Diego from 1971 to 1983, has become a central issue in his campaign for the White House.
Earlier this year, the governor endorsed a statewide initiative proposed for the California ballot in 1996 that would reverse laws that consider ethnicity in government hiring, contracting and school enrollment. He also signed an executive order that dismissed the practice in the state’s executive branch.
Sources said Wilson will preside over the Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco. They also said he will begin the meeting by offering his own comments instead of the board’s traditional procedure of first taking public testimony.
As governor, Wilson serves as president of the regents, but he has not attended a meeting since January, 1992.
Critics accused Wilson of trying to stage-manage the meeting.
“If the guy had come to all the meetings, no problem,†one frustrated regent said. “But you’ve got someone just popping in on a major issue. It’s all for his campaign, it has nothing to do with concern about the university.â€
On Thursday, the board will consider two proposals offered by Regent Ward Connerly, a Wilson appointee. Both plans would abolish race and gender-based preferences and increase the ratio of students UC admits solely on the basis of academic achievement to between 50% and 75%.
Currently, the university’s nine campuses select between 40% and 60% of their students based solely on academic criteria. The rest are judged on both scholastic and supplemental factors--such as race, area of residence or special skills--to create student bodies that reflect the state’s diversity.
Wilson came to the television interview Sunday prepared to defend his proposal. He held up a letter he received from a Vietnamese high school senior opposed to the preferences she was granted. He also produced a document explaining UC Berkeley’s formula for considering minority applicants.
“What it says, simply stated, is that if you are of the right ethnic group, they will not even read your [application] essay, you are automatically admitted,†Wilson said of the Berkeley document. “Even if you are a non-resident, even if you are high income and even if you have low test scores.â€
Speaking on other issues, Wilson repeated his position that the state government is not responsible for helping Los Angeles and Orange counties in their current fiscal crises by providing state money. The governor blamed both situations on bad management at the local level that the county governments are responsible to correct.
“If you are saying the people of California should be taxed purely to bail out county administrations that have not done their job, then I would say that is wrong,†Wilson said.
Wilson also took some shots at his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. In particular, he responded to former television commentator Pat Buchanan’s statement that Wilson could not win the GOP nomination due to his support for abortion rights, gay rights and taxes.
“As usual, Pat is wrong on all counts,†Wilson said. “Pat has never had to manage anything except his own mouth and he’s been an abject failure on that.â€
The governor also said he would gladly debate his two leading presidential rivals--Sens. Phil Gramm and Bob Dole--about taxes, an issue that has haunted Wilson’s campaign because he supported California’s largest tax increase in 1992.
Wilson countered that he opposed two major increases in federal taxes--in 1982 and 1990--that were supported by Dole. He said Gramm voted in favor of the earlier of the two increases.
Times staff writer Amy Wallace contributed to this story.
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