EDITORIAL : PROP. 187 REVISITED DOLE POINTS OUT INEQUITIES IN REQUIRING STATES TO EDUCATE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

CALIFORNIA voters sent a message in 1994 by approving Proposition 187 in a landslide, even though that proposed statute to curtail illegal immigration contained fatal flaws.

This week in a campaign swing through the San Fernando Valley, the Republicans' apparent presidential candidate, Bob Dole, sought to jump on the stalled Proposition 187 bandwagon.

The former Kansas senator said that California and some other states (such as Florida, Texas, New York and Illinois) shoulder multibillion-dollar annual costs related to illegal immigration - incarcerating and educating people who are in the country illegally.

Hardly flush with cash, the states are hard-pressed to make ends meet. Still, Washington requires states to provide the services without federal reimbursement - even though illegal immigration occurs due to federal failure to control the borders, not because of failure by the states (who are prohibited from enforcing immigration laws themselves).

Not surprisingly, the states and taxpayers reacted to that situation with frustration, producing Proposition 187. Although the initiative measure was later found deficient in court, the public frustration remains.

Dole tapped into that discontent, expressing support for federal legislation pushed by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, to permit states to bar public education for children of illegal immigrants.

In our view, tossing youngsters out of school and allowing them to roam around without supervision won't accomplish anything, regardless of whether they or their parents have a right to be in this nation.

But Dole was correct in saying that it's unfair for Washington to force states to pay the tab for the federal government's inability to control the border.

That's an appropriate issue in this presidential campaign: If the feds fall down on the job, they ought to pay the states for the extra expenses.