Honig Outlines His Message for Next Governor

Gubernatorial candidates Dianne Feinstein and Pete Wilson should “spell out in specifics” what they would do to improve California public schools, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Monday.

Delivering his annual “back-to-school” message at a Capitol news conference, Honig tried to play down his current school funding dispute with Gov. George Deukmejian and focus instead on what he hoped would be “a more cooperative relationship” with the next governor.

Honig, a Democrat, has endorsed Feinstein, his party’s choice for governor, but said, “I’ll be able to work with either candidate successfully.”

Honig outlined his own “game plan for the ‘90s,” to make California schools “the best in the nation, the best in the world,” but warned that “it will not happen without the cooperation of the next governor--we need a bipartisan effort.”

Honig’s program includes measures to increase school accountability, improve the assessment of pupil performance, strengthen the curriculum and place more decision-making authority in the hands of teachers and parents in local schools, rather than in large central bureaucracies.

He said California schools have made substantial improvements in recent years, despite “a doubling of the number of kids in poverty, a doubling of limited-English speakers and a huge amount of growth.”

Statewide enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade jumped by about 200,000 this year to a total of almost 5 million.

So far, neither Feinstein nor Wilson has made education a major issue.

Feinstein has urged that state lottery revenue be used for a “jump start” program that would provide classes for all 4-year-olds so they would be better prepared to begin their regular school programs.

She also supports a “teacher corps” for poverty-area schools, and favors lowering the percentage of votes required to pass local school bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority. Feinstein also has said she would restore $500 million in 1990-91 education funding that Deukmejian has either vetoed or “set aside.”

Wilson has not made a similar pledge.

One of Wilson’s early policy statements called for state-paid prenatal care, preschool education for all and the linking of schools with local social service agencies.

Although Honig attempted to keep the news conference focused on his proposals for the 1990s, and on his hopes for a better rapport with the next governor, he was unable to resist the temptation to throw a few more darts at Deukmejian.

Honig said the governor has cut the Department of Education budget by about one-third because “he’s out to get us, one way or the other.”

But the cuts mean the department will be unable to continue some of its activities, including assistance to school districts that are in financial trouble.

“There are 20 or 30 districts that are on very shaky ground and we can’t do anything about it” because of the reduced budget, Honig said.

The schools chief also warned that if Deukmejian does not sign a bill now on his desk that would restore funding for the California Assessment Program, then statewide testing of 12th graders scheduled for December will have to be canceled and next spring’s tests for third-, sixth- and eighth-graders will be in jeopardy.