In the Classroom, Honig Still Seeking To Win Converts

By Lonnie Harp

SAN FRANCISCO--As he strides purposefully toward his destination, Bill Honig is like a machine that is racing full speed ahead, same as ever. It is everything around him that has changed.

Once the larger-than-life superintendent of California's public schools, Mr. Honig walked into repeated political dogfights in the state capital. He was the outspoken champion of school funding and classroom reforms and was mentioned as a candidate for governor or U.S. education secretary.

Now, however, he is starting over--a convicted felon. And on this day in his new life, Bill Honig is lost. He is talking about education-reform schemes and his take on the news from several states as he walks across the campus of San Francisco State University, where he is still a stranger. He stops at the humanities building and the business building and the science building as he looks unsuccessfully for the classroom where he...