Gary K. Hart

Gary K. Hart (born 1943) is an American politician and education activist in southern California.

He was born August 13, 1943, in San Diego, California, and graduated from Santa Barbara High School. He entered Stanford University on a football scholarship, spent six months based in Florence under Stanford's auspices, and graduated in History in 1965. He earned an M.A. from Harvard School of Education the next year.

Running as a Democrat, he lost campaigns for the United States House of Representatives (1970) and the California State Assembly (1972) but later won an Assembly seat (1974), succeeding incumbent Republican Don MacGillivray, who ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate. In 1982, he ran for the California State Senate and won, narrowly defeating Republican state Assemblyman Charles R. Imbrecht, whose wife would, coincidentally, go on to be a History teacher in Hart's PACE program (see below). Hart served in both houses of the Legislature for a total of 20 years, having chaired the Senate Education Committee from 1983 until his retirement in 1994. In 1988, he had made another run for Congress but narrowly lost to Republican incumbent Bob Lagomarsino.

Hart's State Senate district included portions of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Los Angeles Counties. A former high school teacher and a Democrat, Hart authored a wide range of legislation on education topics, including performance-based student testing, school restructuring, charter schools, and latch key child care programs. He was voted most ethical California legislator by his peers and as such appeared on the cover of California Journal.

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