Honig, on Eve of 3rd Term, Continues His Nonstop Pace : Education: Aggressive superintendent has led a school movement that has captured national attention. In the state, he feuds with governor over budget cutbacks.

At regular intervals when the Legislature is in session, a tall, stick-thin figure bursts out the door of the Department of Education building and streaks for the Capitol three blocks away--arms flailing, long legs churning, breathless aides scurrying to keep up, their arms laden with charts and documents.

Bill Honig, about to start his third term as state superintendent of public instruction, is on his way to testify before a legislative committee or to meet with one group or another about an education issue.

Once there, Honig will talk nonstop, often in incomplete sentences. He will wave his arms wildly as he points to the charts and the documents. He will anger many of those present. And, more often than not, he will get his way.

“He’s probably what happens to the bright, hyperactive child who grows up,” said Maureen DiMarco, president of the California School Boards Assn., who has known Honig for many years and once worked for him.

Honig’s 100-yard-dash approach to the job has involved him in controversy since he took office in January, 1983. At the moment, at least three are simmering:

* Gov. George Deukmejian, never a Honig fan, is especially angry at the superintendent because he helped block the governor’s effort to balance the 1990-91 state budget. Deukmejian wanted to suspend Proposition 98, a voter-approved constitutional change that guarantees public schools and community colleges receive roughly 40% of state general fund revenues each year.

* The State Board of Education, feeling ignored in decision-making, has voted to hire its own attorney as part of an effort to strip Honig of his authority.

* Honig is vigorously defending new history and social studies textbooks, which were approved by the board last week, against attacks from a variety of racial and religious groups.

None of these disputes are likely to slow down the schools chief, who constantly travels the state making speeches, visiting schools, appearing on radio talk shows and doing newspaper and television interviews, all to urge anyone who will listen, and many who will not, to improve the quality of California public schools.

“It’s a bully pulpit job and Bill understands that,” said James W. Guthrie, professor of education at UC Berkeley. “He doesn’t have much authority but he has high visibility and a lot of opportunity to influence events.”

Curiously, Honig is perhaps more celebrated outside the state than in California.

“He has set a tone that really has made a difference,” said Rexford Brown, of the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based organization that advises governors and legislatures on education issues. “In a lot of states, people couldn’t tell you who the school chief is, but that’s certainly not true of Honig.”

In the state capital, the governor and many legislative leaders find the schools chief’s aggressive pursuit of his education goals hard to take.

Senate Minority Leader Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) once threatened to walk out of a crucial budget meeting “if that man shows up with one more chart,” a legislative aide who was present reported.

When Honig meets with Deukmejian, “it’s more broadcasting than receiving,” said Peter G. Mehas, the governor’s education adviser. “He has an endless number of agendas. It’s incredible--the arm waving, the constant motion, the never-ending proposals.”

If Honig does not get along with the governor and with key legislators, how has he been able to lead an educational reform movement that has captured national attention?

Honig is “a great promoter, almost a cheerleader, for the public schools,” said Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Pomona), who has observed Honig at close range as a member of the Assembly Education Committee for eight years. “He has captured the grudging admiration or strong support of a cross-section of the school community and that has given him a tremendous amount of influence.”

In contrast, Honig’s predecessor, Wilson Riles, was “a go along, get along kind of guy,” who believed the superintendent had to have good relations with the governor and Legislature, said Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City).

Prodded by Honig and his top lieutenants, California’s schools have significantly improved--by many measures--their performance in recent years.

California Assessment Program scores generally have been rising. So have scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, taken by those who intend to go to college. More high school students are taking advanced placement courses and other rigorous classes. The state’s high school dropout rate has dropped 18% in the last three years.

High school graduation requirements have been tightened, a greater emphasis has been placed on improving teacher skills, and the steadily declining quality of textbooks and other instructional materials has been reversed.

Honig has been pursuing what he calls a “comprehensive strategy” that includes better curriculum guidelines, better textbooks, improved teacher training, better assessment of pupil and school performance, more parent involvement, and more decision-making at local school sites instead of by large central bureaucracies.

“Bill’s vision of the educational system is very comprehensive,” said Michael W. Kirst, professor of education at Stanford University and a Honig ally for 15 years. “He sees how all the pieces have to fit together to make the whole thing work and that is very rare, in public education or in academia.”

The problem is, Kirst said, “it all makes sense in his head, but when you look at a given school or school system, it’s not there.”

Honig agreed that Kirst has a point and said “making sure all these good things come together at the school site” is a major goal of his third term.

Honig, 53, was a lawyer, a teacher in poverty-area schools and superintendent of a tiny, three-school district in prosperous Marin County before he decided to challenge Riles, a popular, three-term incumbent, in 1982.

Honig’s appeal for higher standards, and his insistence that more money would not guarantee better educational results, struck a responsive note among voters and he won a startling victory over Riles.

Although the office is nonpartisan, Honig dropped his Democratic Party affiliation in order to appeal to Republicans and during his first term he won support for his reforms from some GOP businessmen. He registered again as a Democrat during his second term.

Most educators consider his first term a great success. An important piece of Honig-inspired legislation provided more money for schools (he quickly dropped the campaign argument that money did not guarantee success), set the stage for raising teacher salaries substantially, lengthened the school day and tightened high school graduation requirements.

In 1986, Honig was easily reelected, winning 78% of the primary vote for the nonpartisan office and thereby avoiding the general election.

This year, he again was elected in the primary but won only 55% of the vote, against three little-known and poorly-financed opponents. Clearly, the battle scars of eight years in office were beginning to accumulate.

Many of these wounds have been inflicted by Deukmejian, with whom Honig has feuded more or less continuously since 1987.

After losing a budget battle to Deukmejian in 1987, Honig and the California Teachers Assn. were determined it would not happen again. They gained voter approval for Proposition 98, which assures schools and public two-year colleges approximately 40% of general fund revenues.

Deukmejian opposed Proposition 98. Its passage was one of the few serious political defeats he has suffered as governor.

“I think basically we won the war,” Honig said. “The public spoke and gave us the protection we needed with (Proposition) 98.”

This year, when Deukmejian was faced with a potential $3.6-billion deficit in the 1990-91 budget, he tried to suspend Proposition 98, but Honig and the CTA, working through Democratic allies in the Legislature, thwarted the move.

An angry governor then slashed the 1990-91 education budget by $476 million. He reduced the schools’ inflation-related increase from 4.76% to 3%, eliminated CAP, and trimmed the superintendent’s department budget by about one-third, among other cuts.

Deukmejian sequestered about $400 million, saying it would go to schools if Honig agreed to reduce class size, used Proposition 98 money to pay for the testing program, and made other concessions.

Honig and CTA leaders persuaded the Legislature not to pass bills that would carry out the governor’s desired changes. So millions of dollars are sitting unused while the superintendent waits for a new governor to take office in January, hoping for better treatment.

Meanwhile, Honig will attempt to push ahead with his educational reform program.

At his urging, the State Board of Education has adopted strong curriculum guidelines for instruction of history and social studies in kindergarten through eighth grade--and has insisted on higher-quality textbooks to implement the changes.

More high school students are taking tougher courses. A report by Policy Analysis for California Education, a Stanford-USC-UC Berkeley research group, noted enrollment increases of 348% in economics between 1983 and 1989, 208% in physical sciences and 41% in world history.

The number of California students enrolled in advanced placement courses--college-level classes taken by high school students--has more than doubled in the last five years, as has the percentage of students who complete the courses successfully, PACE found.

There have been statistically significant increases in scores on CAP tests, according to the report, although not in all subjects or in all grades tested.

The PACE study also found that “the achievement gap continues to be substantial” for black and Latino students, whose scores are typically 15% to 30% below Anglo scores on CAP and SAT.

The most frequently voiced criticism of Honig’s years as superintendent is that low-income, minority students have not been brought along as the state’s educational standards and accomplishments have risen.

“I wish he would be more sensitive to the needs of low-achieving youngsters,” said Jackie Goldberg, president of the Los Angeles Board of Education. “I don’t mean he doesn’t care; he does, but it’s not high enough on his agenda.

“The students who were not making it at all in the old, not-so-rigorous atmosphere certainly aren’t making it in today’s more rigorous one and some way has to be found to help them,” she added.

Wayne Johnson, former president of United Teachers of Los Angeles and a harsh Honig critic, put it this way: “Not everybody should take algebra.”

Honig disagrees.

“The thing is to teach that strong curriculum to low-level kids,” he insisted. “You can’t pull ‘em out and teach ‘em remedial . . . if you do that, you’re saying, ‘You can’t have a job in this society’ ”.

Honig conceded that making the reforms work for the state’s poorest pupils remains a challenge to be met during his third term.

“I’m moving it up on my priorities,” he said. “I talk about it in every speech. We’re going to get it done.”