Hart Goes to the Head of the Class : Legislators: Senate education panel chairman has taken an unpaid teaching job to reacquaint himself with the daily challenge of educating teen-agers.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, temporarily has forsaken the hearing rooms of the Capitol for the classrooms of a local high school for what he calls a lesson in reality.

Under a flickering florescent light and next to smudged windows plastered with bumper stickers, the Santa Barbara Democrat is seeking to win over what is very likely his toughest constituency: 30 or so high school students who are clearly more excited about passing their drivers test than Hart’s quizzes on the Spanish-American War.

At the Capitol, Hart is an influential mover and shaker on education issues, able to control the tempo of business before his committee. But in his classroom at John F. Kennedy High School a few miles south of the Capitol, he is merely the new U.S. history teacher who must put up with a steady stream of interruptions--from late-arriving students to announcements blaring from a loudspeaker system--that conspire to derail his lesson plans.

Even sneaking a quick drink of water between classes can prove daunting, Hart says, noting that the water fountain near his classroom was out of order for the first two months of his one-semester stint.

“Prisoners might have better access” to water, Hart cracked.

“I’m like a first-year teacher. I struggle,” the 49-year-old lawmaker says.

Actually, he is not a rookie. He taught school before his 1974 election to the Legislature and thereafter returned to school both as student and teacher. A few years ago, he attended UC Davis to study American history. In the mid-1980s, Hart, who has a master’s degree in education from Harvard, spent a week at Los Angeles High School. In the late 1970s, Hart taught college-bound students in his Santa Barbara hometown.

But this time, though he disavows any connection, his back-to-school experience might help serve another purpose.

Hart says he expects to enter the 1994 race to succeed Bill Honig as state superintendent of public instruction, the state’s top education post. Honig, scheduled to go on trial next month on felony conflict-of-interest charges, has said he does not expect to seek reelection in 1994.

Whether Hart runs for reelection to the Senate--from a newly drawn district that hugs the coast from Ventura to San Luis Obispo County--or sets his sights on Honig’s job, the senator trumpets the benefit of spending time in the classroom.

“Having an experience like this is helpful” in shaping education priorities, he says. “It’s a reality check.”

Without missing a beat last September, Hart shed his sport coat and tie for a pullover sweater and open-collar shirt to teach two periods of history at Kennedy High, an ethnically diverse 2,300-student school situated in an upscale neighborhood of pools and patios.

Hart says he sought the unpaid assignment to reacquaint himself with the day-to-day challenge of educating high school students. He persuaded Sacramento school officials to place college-bound and non-college bound students alike in his courses. Like a regular teacher, he offers instruction, assigns classroom work and tests, and grades his students.

He describes Kennedy as a school facing problems, but a school that, in his words, is not yet a disaster.

In contrast with his days teaching in Santa Barbara, Hart says his current students are “hurting more emotionally.” He cites free-flow essays in which some students cite fears over their safety, raising concerns about gang activity.

Hart, who has three daughters, sometimes frets that he’s failing to motivate his students. He complains that some days are disappointing, such as early in the semester when none of his students knew that Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas. Other mornings he’s greeted with small triumphs: a would-be rap musician turns out to be the only student in two periods to know the meaning of the word overt .

“It’s been an eye-opener for him,” says Victor Cozzalio, one of two teachers whose class Hart has taken over. “He bumps his nose on reality.”

“He’s a good teacher, but he’s hard and sometimes he talks real fast,” says Charles Sammis, 15, a student in Hart’s first-period class. “He gives us a challenge. He wants us to do the best we can.”

Hart says he is trying to turn his classroom into a laboratory for fresh education approaches. Among other things, Hart seeks to cut down the frequency of lectures, teams students to tackle questions together, and focuses his class on such themes as isolationism in U.S. foreign policy, instead of just important historical dates.

“I’m learning how to do a better job,” Hart says, noting that he’s found it more productive to establish a more structured classroom environment than when he first walked into the classroom in September.

It’s too soon to tell whether Hart’s back-to-school experience will lead to legislation.

But he wants to explore ways of boosting the support system for teachers and students. For instance, he says, a counselor might be best suited to assess a student’s needs, but Kennedy High has only one counselor for all 2,300 students.

“When you don’t have any counselors,” Hart says, “you pay a heavy price.”

Also, Hart says, his classroom experience has shown him that students who are not college bound “need to have some incentives to do well in school.”

Hart has made a name for himself with education legislation, including a 1983 package of reform bills and a 1992 measure that will allow parents, teachers and others to create taxpayer-financed schools that will operate free of most state and local controls. The goal of the so-called charter schools is to increase innovation and variety in schools.

With good looks and an easy-going style, Hart has been mentioned by politicians as a potential candidate for statewide office. In 1986, he briefly considered running for governor. Two years later, he lost a hard-fought congressional campaign to Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura).

Now, he is one of a handful of politicians being touted in the Capitol as a potential candidate to succeed Honig, who could be forced from office if convicted of the charges against him.

If the office were vacant, Gov. Pete Wilson would be allowed to name a replacement. Among the names mentioned as potential Wilson appointees are Republican Sens. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach and Rebecca Morgan of Los Altos.

Others considered as possible candidates for the job include Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont), leader of the Assembly Education Committee, and Maureen DiMarco, Wilson’s education adviser.

Hart plays down any tie between politics and his teaching stint, saying, “I was committed to doing this irrespective of whether I run for superintendent. Whatever the political benefits that might exist, it’s helpful to me to be a better legislator.”