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The Republican governor, crafting his final state budget and marshaling his forces for a presidential run in two years, spent the weekend leaking the cornerstone of his new state budget to reporters. Heeding polls and focus groups, the governor is targeting education, an issue that resonates both nationally and in California as one of the top concerns of voters. If his latest proposals ultimately become law -- and the smart money is betting that they will, at least in some form -- Wilson will enter the national political arena with a solid record of achievement in the nation's largest state.

Aside from the merits of his proposals, he shrewdly is taking a tack that he hopes will cut the political ground out from under the Democrats' presumed guberrnatorial frontrunner this year: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in her first major announcement on a state issue, declared her support for an education initiative that would lengthen the school year, improve teacher training and get more funds to classrooms. Her plan is based on a $1-per-pack boost in the cigarette tax.

Wilson, shunning tax hikes, is taking a different approach.

First, the governor has proposed a $386 million plan to lengthen the school year and provide remedial reading for the third through sixth grades. Most of the money, about $350 million, would provide up to eight additional days in each school year for student instruction, requiring California's 1,100 school districts to hold classes at least 180 days each school year. The 180-day minimum currently exists in law, but many districts use some of those days for teacher training and development in which kids don't go to class. The governor's plan, in effect, would provide money to districts to pay for training and allow the schools to boost the number of classroom days.

The governor also has proposed requiring districts to offer remedial summer school reading program for students after they complete the second grade. Senior administration officials said the plan stems in part from studies that show California youngsters rank poorly in national comparisons. One survey showed California fourth-graders tied for last with Louisiana in reading skills. Wilson's proposal does not require parents to send their kids to the remedial program, but it does require the school districts to make the program available, either during the summer, after school or on Saturdays.

But his second major proposal, which his administration disclosed Sunday, is far more ambitious: It would, with voter approval, provide $8 billion over the next 6 years for schools, covering everything from new construction, maintenance and class-size reduction to textbooks and financial relief for strapped districts.

However, deep in the detail of his multibillion-dollar proposal are items that districts and educators may not like. For example, the governor's plan would increase the amount of matching money that districts would have to come up with for new construction. Currently, the districts have to pony up about a third of the cost; the governor's proposal requires half, except in cases of extreme hardship. The governor's plan also caps developer fees -- a popular coffer for school districts' new construction -- at $1.84 per square foot. Many districts currently charge $3.50 per square foot, or more.

Politically, the bond-financing plan is smart. It puts Wilson's stamp on California's government long after he leaves office, and it keeps his name before the public for that crucial two-year period when he is out of a job and running for president in 2000. Moreover, Wilson hopes to make a Reaganesque end-run around the Capitol's politicians and appeal directly to voters, who overwhelmingly want to see improvements in their public schools.

Wilson has made few mistakes in his 32 years as an elected official, and he's learned from all of them. His biggest blunder was running for president in 1995, after breaking a promise to voters that he wouldn't. But his timing then was bad, and his core issue -- illegal immigration -- was worse.

When he announces his education plan today at an elementary school in Burbank, he hopes to start erasing that past mistake. And by the time his budget is formally unveiled Friday, he hopes to be on the road to a national political rehabilitation.

This year, his timing is better. So is his issue.

Now all he needs is some luck.

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