Facing Rejection, Carrabino Resigns Education Post : Politics: He says he will step down Sept. 30 instead of trying to win a new term. He spent six combative years on the state board, often feuding with Honig.

Facing almost certain rejection of his appointment in the state Senate, Joseph D. Carrabino has resigned from the State Board of Education after six combative years.

In a letter of resignation to Gov. Pete Wilson, dated Thursday, Carrabino, 67, said he will leave the board Sept. 30 because of “anger and frustration” over the behavior of state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig.

Carrabino called Honig, with whom he has been feuding for the last three years, “a petty, power-hungry politician whose outsized ego can’t stand to have anyone else participate in the formulation of education policy.”

Honig could not be reached on Saturday but Susie Lange, Department of Education spokeswoman, said the superintendent did not want to comment on the resignation.

Carrabino, a retired UCLA management professor, had waged an all-out battle to retain his seat on the board since he was appointed to a second four-year term by Wilson last March.

Every major educational organization in the state, including the Parent-Teacher Assn., the California School Boards Assn., the Assn. of California School Administrators and the California Teachers Assn., has opposed the reappointment in letters to the Senate Rules Committee.

The committee also received letters accusing Carrabino of making racial and anti-Semitic remarks and of fomenting trouble on the 11-member board.

Carrabino obtained several postponements of a Rules Committee hearing while he tried to rally conservative support for his reappointment.

However, the committee set Aug. 12 as the hearing date. Sources close to the committee said he had neither the three votes needed to clear the committee nor the 27 votes to gain full Senate approval.

Carrabino was informed of this situation early last week by Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), chairman of the Rules Committee. A day or two later, he wrote the resignation letter.

Carrabino has been the most outspoken member of a conservative group on the State Board of Education that has been trying to wrest control over budget and policy-making from Honig.

Unable to make much headway, Carrabino persuaded a majority of board members to sue Honig last November. Briefs have been filed with the state Court of Appeal but no hearings have been held.

Dan Chernow, former chairman of the state Curriculum Commission, said: “If Carrabino had put half as much energy into the educational reform movement as he did into attacking Honig, he might have done something worthwhile.”

Mike Hudson, vice president of People for the American Way, a liberal constitutional rights organization, said the resignation “is a real victory for public education. . . . It is apparent the Senate would not have confirmed Carrabino, once his record and comments were fully known.”

Board President Joseph Stein could not be reached Saturday, but several months ago, he praised Carrabino for spotlighting governance issues and for insisting on tighter spending controls.

“The board would not be where it is today if it were not for his leadership,” Stein said at the time.