Assembly Vote on Schools Buoys Beleaguered Honig

For state schools Supt. Bill Honig, Wednesday was a rare day of triumph in what has been a gloomy year or two.

Under indictment for state felony conflict-of-interest charges, Honig has not cast his usual long shadow across the state educational scene in recent months.

But when the state Assembly, in a post-midnight vote, rejected Gov. Pete Wilson’s attempt to cut school spending by $2 billion next year, Honig and the state’s public schools and community colleges were able to celebrate at least a temporary victory.

“They all have to learn the hard way,” Honig said in an interview Wednesday. “(Former Gov. George) Deukmejian had to learn, now Wilson has had to learn--they both broke their picks on the schools.”

Late Tuesday, the Senate approved a proposal that would have slashed school spending by $2 billion. But the Assembly, largely with Democrats’ support, rejected the plan.

The bitter budget fight between the governor and the educational community will continue because Wilson still wants to trim school and community college spending by about $2 billion next year. Assembly Democrats, backed by Honig and a coalition of educational groups, are willing to offer only $605 million in cuts.

But for now the schools have escaped the worst that could have happened.

“This changes the dynamics,” said a legislative aide who has been close to the budget negotiations. “Now the schools have some room to maneuver. Now they can talk about the difference between $605 million and $2 billion and not have to begin by taking a cut of at least $1 billion.”

The $605 million in cuts that Assembly Democrats and the education coalition are willing to make include $150 million to expand various categorical programs--such things as special efforts for gifted and talented students, the Miller-Unruh reading program and mentor teachers, veteran instructors who receive extra pay for passing on their skills to younger colleagues. The amount also includes $100 million for enrollment growth in those programs.

Department of Education fiscal experts and Democratic legislative aides say this money could be provided either by suspending Proposition 98, an unlikely solution which requires a two-thirds vote of both the Assembly and the Senate--or by “under-appropriating” school districts by that amount.

School districts are supposed to receive $18.2 billion from the state next year, but that could be reduced by the $605 million proposed or more next year. A $605-million reduction would amount to an average budget cut of 3% to 4% for local school districts.

In effect, the schools would be lending the state this money, which Honig said “certainly is an ironic development.”

One of Honig’s top aides called the Assembly’s rejection of Wilson’s proposed $2-billion school cuts “one of the biggest wins I can remember.”

Honig said, “I think now we’ll get a budget, unless they (Wilson and his political advisers) are back into their strictly political mode.”

When the governor made it clear at a news conference Wednesday that he does not plan to back down, the schools chief called his own news conference to denounce Wilson as, among other things, “hypocritical” and “anti-child.”

He also accused Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) of “lack of principle” for supporting the Wilson spending plan.

Senate Democrats “should be ashamed of themselves” for approving the plan, “and many of them are today,” Honig said.

But he praised the “integrity” and “courage” of Assembly Democrats, who rejected the Wilson proposals by a 49-24 vote.

For Honig, all of this has come as a flash of good news after a long gloomy period that saw him investigated and then indicted for allegedly benefiting from state contracts obtained by his wife’s parent involvement program. He also has been engaged in a bitter battle with conservatives on the State Board of Education over his authority to direct educational policy making.

Honig usually is at the forefront of the state’s public school battles, but recently he has been relatively quiet as public school forces tried to keep a private school voucher plan off the November ballot and muster support for the education budget.

Another figure who has played an unusual role in his drama is Maureen DiMarco, Wilson’s secretary for child development and education.

Three years ago, DiMarco was one of the leaders of an educational coalition that thwarted Deukmejian’s efforts to trim school spending by about $2 billion. This year, she is defending Wilson’s cuts, suggesting several herself.