Bill Honig, the much-admired state education leader disgraced in a contract scandal in the 1990s, won't serve on the state's Board of Education again after all.
Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Honig to the board last week—a move that excited both praise and criticism. The criticism arose from Honig's 1993 conviction in a conflict-of-interest case involving state funds paid to his wife, an education consultant. Honig was originally found guilty of a felony and performed 1,000 hours of community service before the trial judge reduced the offenses to misdemeanors and cut former official's sentence.
As recently as a Friday afternoon interview with KQED News,, Honig enthusiastically discussed serving again on the board. But today, the governor's office announced Honig had withdrawn his name for consideration. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Honig said there were "some complications" with his nomination, but he refused to elaborate. "I'm not going to comment on what they were," he said. Honig currently works as the president of CORE, which offers professional development services for teachers and education administrators.
Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford did not offer an explanation for Honig's decision, but said "the governor has encouraged him to stay involved with state education policy." Honig said he planned to be an informal adviser to the governor on education issues and praised Brown's board of education picks. "I think they have a very strong board," Honig said.