Ex-California governor to talk April 19

At Rice, Wilson will speak on the topic “Perspectives
on Business-Government Relations: The View from California”
at 1:15 p.m. in Room 124, Herring Hall. The public is welcome
to attend.

As governor, Wilson insisted on strict budget discipline
and rehabilitation of the state’s then-hostile environment
for investment and job creation. Among the many pro-business
accomplishments of his administration, he provided for market-based
unsubsidized health coverage for employees of small businesses,
and obtained anti-fraud measures that drove down workers’
compensation premiums by 40 percent.

Wilson also enacted sweeping welfare reforms and historic
education reforms, including rigorous curricular standards,
class-size reduction and the replacement of social promotion
with early, effective remedial education. He also began
new programs of individualized testing of all students,
teacher-competency and training and a lengthier instructional
year.

He led efforts to enact tougher crime measures and signed
into law “Three Strikes,” mandating 25 years to
life for repeat felons, and “One Strike,” prescribing
25 years to life upon the first conviction of aggravated
rape or child molestation.

Wilson is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover
Institution at Stanford University, a member of the advisory
council of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and a member of the
boards of the Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Nixon
Library and Birthplace Foundation.

He currently serves on the Defense Policy Board, which advises
the U.S. secretary of defense on defense matters, as well
as President Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board,
which advises the president on the quality and adequacy
of intelligence collection and the legality of foreign intelligence
activities.