Quality Education Project

State schools chief Bill Honig pleaded innocent to four felony conflict-of-interest counts in Superior Court on Monday and afterward again accused state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren of pursuing the prosecution out of "political motivations." Lungren "is using the criminal justice system to settle political scores," Honig told reporters after the brief arraignment proceedings, "either to advance his career or to pay off his right-wing supporters."

Former schools chief Bill Honig was ordered Monday to pay $274,754 in restitution in connection with his felony conflict-of-interest convictions in January. The amount was $60,000 less than he had been ordered to pay initially, but Honig continued to argue that he should not be required to pay any restitution in the case that involved his authorization of $337,509 in state contracts that benefited his wife's nonprofit Quality Education Project.

State schools Supt. Bill Honig vowed Tuesday to fight a draft audit report that accuses him of using his influence to help a foundation run by his wife and that demands a $222,590 refund in federal money. The U.S. Department of Education charged in a preliminary audit that Honig had a conflict of interest from 1987 to 1989, when the state Department of Education dealt with Quality Education Project. Nancy Honig, his wife, is the president and founder of the organization, earning $100,000 a year.

Former state schools chief Bill Honig was sentenced to four years probation and ordered to pay more than $337,000 in restitution by a Superior Court judge Wednesday, but received no jail time for his four felony conflict-of-interest convictions. Judge James L. Long issued a preliminary order that Honig repay the funds that he improperly issued in state contracts while he was state superintendent of public instruction.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has decided against conducting an investigation of possible conflict of interest by State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig because of his ties to a parent-involvement education program run by his wife. In a memo made public Wednesday, Janis Shank McLean, the agency's acting enforcement officer, said FPPC was closing the case because the state Political Reform Act excluded state officials from penalties in conflict-of-interest cases until this year.

"There's really nothing that new" about Nancy Honig's Quality Education Project (QEP), Michael Klentschy, associate superintendent of schools in Pasadena, said Thursday, "but it is a real fine collection of some of the best materials anybody has ever put together on how to get parents involved in the schools." Pasadena is in its third year of using QEP in kindergarten through eighth grade, Klentschy said, and has found the program "very effective."

A former deputy to state schools chief Bill Honig testified Wednesday that he told his boss it was legal but politically dangerous to authorize several contracts with local school district educators that prosecutors say constitute a criminal conflict of interest. James R.

Former schools chief Bill Honig was ordered Monday to pay $274,754 in restitution in connection with his felony conflict-of-interest convictions in January. The amount was $60,000 less than he had been ordered to pay initially, but Honig continued to argue that he should not be required to pay any restitution in the case that involved his authorization of $337,509 in state contracts that benefited his wife's nonprofit Quality Education Project.

Attorneys representing school chief Bill Honig in his conflict-of-interest trial sought a recess in the criminal proceedings Wednesday, contending that a Superior Court Judge had cut the heart out of their defense. Judge James L. Long barred Honig from telling a jury that he was acting on behalf of California's schoolchildren when he OKd more than $337,000 in public funds to pay educators who were working for his wife's nonprofit consulting firm.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, under state indictment on felony conflict of interest charges, said he does not expect to run for a fourth term. "I haven't finally made a decision but I think it's very unlikely I'd run again," Honig said during a wide-ranging interview with The Times. "You get about as much accomplished as you can get in 12 years," said the schools chief, whose third term will end early in 1995.

In a stunningly quick decision after three weeks of testimony, a Superior Court jury found state public schools chief Bill Honig guilty Friday on all four felony counts in his conflict-of-interest trial. Honig, who has built a national reputation as an educational reformer, faces up to five years in prison and loss of his office as superintendent of public instruction. He remains free on his own recognizance pending a sentencing hearing Feb. 26. Honig said he would appeal the verdict.

Attorneys presented final arguments Thursday in Bill Honig's conflict-of-interest trial, with the prosecution comparing the state schools chief to someone who would rob a bank to help a friend and the defense describing him as an ethical public official whose only interest was helping children. "He may have started out with the greatest intentions in the world, and I hope he did," Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. George H. Williamson told the Superior Court jury.

The defense rested its case Tuesday in the Bill Honig conflict-of-interest trial after presenting a certified public accountant who testified that neither the schools chief nor his wife benefited from contracts that Honig is accused of illegally authorizing. On the contrary, Francis J.

Schools chief Bill Honig took the witness stand in his defense Monday and insisted that he knew of no conflict of interest in authorizing more than $337,000 in state contracts for local educators to work with his wife's nonprofit consulting firm.

The defense in schools chief Bill Honig's conflict-of-interest trial produced a top state lawyer Thursday who testified that he had declared it legal for Honig's wife to work on tax-supported parental involvement programs in the public schools. Joseph R. Symkowick, chief counsel of the Department of Education, testifying out of the presence of the jury, said he knew few details of Nancy Honig's activities at the time he gave the advice to former Deputy Supt.

A key prosecution witness testified in the conflict-of-interest trial of state public schools chief Bill Honig that she worked directly for a private consulting firm run by Honig's wife even though she was on the state Department of Education's payroll. Linda Page, a former elementary school principal, also said she received no supervision from state officials.

A former executive director of a parent involvement program run by Nancy Honig, wife of state schools chief Bill Honig, told a state grand jury she was eased out of her job after complaining that the organization and the state Department of Education were too closely intertwined. In testimony made public Monday, Linda Page said she was told that all parental involvement projects sponsored by the department first had to be approved by Nancy Honig's private, nonprofit Quality Education Project.

Opening arguments in the felony conflict-of-interest trial of state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig were presented Monday, with prosecutors showing the jury a large chart depicting Honig sitting at a green desk allegedly awarding tainted contracts. "Mr. Honig had a financial interest in the contracts," Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. George Williamson told the seven women and five men on the Superior Court jury. "Nothing more, nothing less."

A former deputy to state schools chief Bill Honig testified Wednesday that he told his boss it was legal but politically dangerous to authorize several contracts with local school district educators that prosecutors say constitute a criminal conflict of interest. James R.