Arnold after school

Deirdre Newman

A pumped-up crowd of UC Irvine students crowded the Social

Sciences Plaza on Tuesday to hear actor Arnold Schwarzenegger tout a

ballot measure he crafted to expand after-school programs throughout

the state.

The ballot measure, Proposition 49, calls for additional funding

for state grants to bring an after-school program to all 6,600 public

elementary, middle and junior high schools in the state that choose

to offer one. The initiative provides $400 million a year in new

funding to provide these grants from incremental state revenue

growth, not new taxes. But the funding will not start until 2004 or

later to allow California’s economy to recover.

Peppering his speech with famous lines from his movies,

Schwarzenegger asserted that his initiative will make a big dent in

“the prime time for juvenile crime” -- between 3 and 6 p.m., when

many children are unsupervised and turn to alcohol, smoking and

gang-related violence.

“Let’s not imprison kids, let’s imprison the problem,”

Schwarzenegger said. “Let’s say ‘hasta la vista’ to the problem and

‘I’ll be back’ to good education.’”

The College Republicans sponsored the visit by the star of action

films “The Terminator,” “Predator” and “True Lies.”

Schwarzenegger credited his parents’ supervision at home in

Austria while growing up for his success in achieving his two goals:

to be the most muscular man in the world and to be rich and famous.

He reminisced about how when he got home from school, his mother was

waiting for him, urging him to do his homework and then quizzing him

to make sure he understood it.

“When I got anything wrong, she would whack with me a stick over

the head,” Schwarzenegger recalled with a laugh.

When his mother finished helping him with his homework, his father

would take him out to a nearby soccer field to work on his athletics.

The constant supervision imbued him with self-confidence, which he

said is sorely lacking in children these days with both parents

working in many families.

“Millions of kids are unsupervised,” Schwarzenegger said. “No one

is telling them they’re great. How do we expect them to be

successful?”

Schwarzenegger said he came to UCI to discuss the merits of

Proposition 49 because he believes the student vote is important.

Although Schwarzenegger is a Republican, he emphasized the

bipartisan nature of the ballot measure and said he hadn’t even

discussed it with President Bush.

“I don’t need the President to back it,” Schwarzenegger said. “I

want the people to [support it]. I believe in grass-roots issues. I

want us to be the first state in the union to have a comprehensive

[after-school] program.”

While Schwarzenegger focused most of his speech on the

proposition, the loudest applause came when he told the crowd that he

had just finished filming “Terminator 3.”

Many students said they came more for the opportunity to see

Schwarzenegger than to hear what he had to say.

“I used to watch his movies with my family,” said Shabnam Shenasi,

20. “He’s kind of the way I imagined him -- energetic and strong.”

Shenasi said after hearing Schwarzenegger’s speech, she was

leaning toward supporting Proposition 49.

Ryan Booth, 19, a member of the College Republicans, gave

Schwarzenegger’s performance on campus an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“It was a really good, little speech,” Booth said. “He seemed to

be well spoken and presented the issue fairly.”

When asked by a student if he is considering running for governor

in 2006, Schwarzenegger proved as evasive as the enemies he battles

in his movies.

“It’s a little early to talk about running for governor,”

Schwarzenegger said. “I leave a decision like this up to the almighty

-- my wife, Maria.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.