Lawmakers to Reconvene on Education : Spending: Legislature will seek to reassure worried school districts by restoring $500 million. Wilson says Honig has needlessly raised fears.

Responding to the concerns of public school teachers and administrators, leaders of the Assembly and Senate have called the Legislature back into session next Wednesday to restore $500 million in education funds vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson from the state budget.

The unusual session, which is intended to deal with only that issue, was called to clear up what Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) called “a technical dispute” that might have cost school districts throughout California as much as $100 per student.

“The overwhelming preponderance of legal opinion is that the legislative session is not necessary,” Roberti said in a written statement. “Nevertheless, sufficient fears have been raised that the best way to reassure school districts that are putting their budgets together is to reconvene and removed the cloud of uncertainty as swiftly as possible.”

The governor cut the funding because of what he regarded as technical difficulties with the wording in the budget bill. Wilson believed that faulty language might have allowed districts to demand even more state funds than the $4,185 per student agreed to in settling the state’s record 63-day budget impasse.

However, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig has called the vetoes a “$500-million double cross” and said that the governor’s actions would force every school district to reopen its budget and cut an additional 2% in spending.

In response to Honig’s charges, Wilson issued a letter saying that it was his intent to restore the money in January, after the Legislature would normally begin a new session, and that schools could count on the full amount promised to them as part of the state budget agreement.

But aides to Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) agreed with Honig that the best way to relieve the fears of school districts around the state was to call the lawmakers back in session.

Brown’s press secretary, Jim Lewis, said: “It’s simply foolish for school districts to spend the money based on some assurance (from Wilson) that several months from now the items will be reinserted into the budget. It’s simply not smart, and it would be illegal.”

Late Friday, Wilson issued a statement saying that although clearing up the issue could wait, he supported calling the Legislature back in session now “to calm any fears that have been needlessly created by the irresponsible actions of Supt. Honig.”

Wilson is also considering calling a special legislative session to revamp the state’s troubled workers’ compensation system. He has said legislation passed recently to address the problem is inadequate.

Before the announcement that the Legislature would return, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Bill Anton announced plans Friday to re-examine the system’s battered budget for further cuts of up to $50 million--the amount the district feared it could lose if Wilson’s vetoes were allowed to stand.

“Fiscal prudence leaves us no choice but to assume all the blue-pencil cuts are real until we are told otherwise,” he said at a news conference at Glassell Park Elementary School. “Unless state leadership acts now, we won’t be assured of what our budget is.”

Anton also announced Friday that a districtwide hiring freeze will continue and be extended to include teachers. Exceptions will be made in such hard-to-fill areas as special education and math if the positions cannot be filled by a credentialed employee already employed by the district, he said.

To balance the district’s $3.9-billion budget for this year, Los Angeles school officials have eliminated offices, reduced services and proposed $247 million in cuts in employees’ salaries--pay cuts believed to be the deepest of any school system in the country.

Times staff writer Charisse Jones contributed to this report.