Appointment of Hart to Education Post Applauded

Saying they now have a friend in the governor’s office, boosters of Ventura County’s first public university Tuesday applauded the appointment of former state Sen. Gary K. Hart as Gov.-elect Gray Davis’ education secretary.

Davis appointed Hart, who represented Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in the Legislature for 20 years, as his education secretary Monday, citing Hart’s experience as a high school teacher, lawmaker and current head of Cal State University’s Institute for Educational Reform. The education secretary, a post created by outgoing Gov. Pete Wilson, helps the governor craft public school policy from preschool through college.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Jack O’Connell, a San Luis Obispo Democrat who followed Hart to the Assembly and Senate, said his friend of 20 years was “the perfect choice” for the job.

“I’m particularly thrilled for Cal State University Channel Islands,” O’Connell said, referring to the new public university campus in Camarillo. “Gary has been a strong advocate of a four-year public university in Ventura County since the early ‘80s. I hope to see even more of a commitment of resources to the Channel Islands campus now. . . . We have an ally in the governor’s office.”

CSU Channel Islands President Handel Evans was also pleased with the appointment, which comes as the 23rd campus of the Cal State system continues to seek crucial funding to renovate and operate the university site at the former Camarillo State Hospital.

“I don’t want to be selfish, but I do think it’s a terrific appointment,” Evans said. “I think it helps us that he knows the Legislature, the CSU system and kindergarten through 12th-grade education, one of the areas we want to be very much involved in.

“He has taken a lot of interest in the process and progress of this place. He’s very much aware of what’s going on here.”

Representing the two counties in the Assembly and Senate, Hart advocated reducing class sizes and increasing school accountability. A former history and English teacher, the 55-year-old father of three taught part-time in a Sacramento public school while a lawmaker.

Hart’s background and bipartisan temperament should serve him well in his new job, Ventura County schools Supt. Charles Weis predicted. Weis said he expected an end to the frequent Wilson-era bickering between the state’s elected public schools chief, Delaine Eastin, and the governor’s appointed education advisor.

“I think Gary will do a great job and will bring a spirit of cooperation and collaboration between the Education Department and the governor’s office,” Weis said.

“As with Delaine Eastin, I think we’ll have a voice with Gary,” he added. “I can call him, and he’ll call me back. I think that bodes well for getting our fair share of allocations. Gary Hart knows Ventura County--you can’t say that about everyone in Sacramento. They’ve driven through it is what most of them tell me.”

Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito said Hart has not lost touch with the realities of classrooms, where supplies can be scarce and students can be more preoccupied with family and peer pressure than with their studies.

“I can’t tell you how delighted I am,” said Spirito, who has known Hart for more than a decade. “He’s local. He’s an educator. And I think he has the pulse of what’s going on in the classroom. He’s not some armchair general who fires shots, ‘We need to do A, B, C and D,’ and then sits back and does nothing. He’ll follow through.”

For his part, Hart said he is hunkering down with Davis, hammering out the educational proposals in his first budget. Both men want to focus on ensuring that children learn to read by the third grade, improving teacher training and making schools more accountable for student performance.

“Setting up a full, balanced accountability system for achievement throughout the state is a difficult thing to do,” Hart acknowledged Tuesday. “Having said that, the governor feels very strongly that we want and need a statewide system of accountability where schools that perform poorly can have some sort of intervention or possibly sanctions, depending on what makes most sense.

“We’re also interested in some system of providing rewards for doing a good job.”