Citizen Voices: John Street's Responses

The Philadelphia School District must either:

1. Sharpen the Mission: Clarify the educational mission for the City, and hold the students and adults accountable for achieving it;
2. Scrap the System: Put power back in the parent's hands through a system of educational choice; or
3. Support the System: Make schools more of a community resource, while giving it more of the community's resources.

We all recognize that high-quality education is key to the future of this City. A quality education is the most primary foundation of a strong work force. Without the strong work force that quality education produces, we will be unable to attract new jobs and new businesses to Philadelphia. The future of Philadelphia's economic success depends upon giving our children the best possible education and every child must be given the opportunity to achieve at the highest level of his or her potential.

As President of City Council, I convened the Philadelphia Education Summit. We listened to a diverse group of voices – parents, students, teachers, business owners, members of community organizations, neighbors -- who told us what they wanted from public education. Quite simply, we all know what the children of Philadelphia need and deserve:

• Smaller class size in grades K-3;
• Quality pre-school and after-school programs for children of all ages;
• Clean, safe schools and classrooms that provide state-of-the-art technology for every child;
• Support for children who are at risk and need tutoring, summer school, and other help to succeed; and,
• Research based professional development for our teachers and principals, because we know that a school has a better chance of succeeding if the principal is a leader and a good teacher is the fundamental ingredient in every classroom.

Through the Education Summit, we have also learned that we are on the right track. Too often, here and in other cities, people have not given reform initiatives time to achieve scale. Right now in Philadelphia, limited reform initiatives have been instituted and schools are improving. Overall, test scores are up. However, more reforms must be made and we must finish the job that we have started. We must focus on the elements of reform that we know work and strive to ensure that these reforms are expanded and enhanced for the sake of our children. It is important to acknowledge that some reform implementation strategies are not working and we must accept that these must be changed. However, change can occur and it can be successful and I pledge that as Mayor, I will dedicate my administration to making our schools a place of growth, learning, and success. The simple truth is that until every child has a real opportunity to succeed in our public schools – regardless of the location - we have not fulfilled our responsibility to them, to us, nor to the future generations of Philadelphians. The answer, however, does not lie in singular ‘silver bullet' solution or in an entire change in direction; such action will only prolong the misfortune the system is presently facing and will most likely set us back many years. Our children deserve better.

The Philadelphia School system is on the brink of a financial crisis unless immediate steps are taken to end the funding stalemate. To this end, I have proposed that the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority Act (PICA) be amended to extend its jurisdiction to include the School District of Philadelphia. This will enable elected and government leaders from the State and the City to determine the current and future funding needs for Philadelphia's public schools and launch our public school system on the road to fiscal stability and academic reform. PICA is a structure already in place. Its governance has bipartisan confidence and support. Equally important, PICA has the confidence of the investment community

I will convene a Public Education Oversight Task Force within 30 days of my election to draft and propose legislation to amend the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority Act to broaden its jurisdiction to include the Philadelphia School District. It is envisioned that in this expanded role, PICA would serve as the fiscal oversight authority, to ensure that the Philadelphia School District has both sufficient funds and that those funds are efficiently and effectively spent.

We must put an end to the notion that vouchers provide a solution to improving public education. I am committed to our public schools – they open the door to personal freedom and full citizenship. I attended public schools; all of my older children attended public schools; my youngest son currently attends one of Philadelphia's public schools. That experience, together with my 19 years of direct involvement with the schools in the City Council and the input we gathered through the Education Summit, tells me that vouchers are not the solution for addressing the problems confronting public education.

Supporters of vouchers argue that they provide competition for public schools, forcing schools to either improve or lose students. Vouchers also are offered as solutions for children living in poor school districts – mainly in inner cities – who seek a better education. In reality, vouchers provide support for a few students, but offer little for the majority of students. Even if we maximized the number of private, parochial and charter school seats in this region, 80% of those children now enrolled in Philadelphia's public schools would still be there!

In his proposed budget for the year 2000, Governor Ridge included massive funding for education vouchers. One of these proposals was designed to fund a $563 million/five year pilot project. This voucher could be used by parents to pay tuition at any school – public or private, non-sectarian or religious, within or outside of a school district.

During the first year of the pilot project, a family with an income of $15,000 or less could qualify – but eventually, families with after-tax income of $75,000 would qualify. The voucher, itself, would be worth about $1500. With the average cost of a private school in Philadelphia ranging from $5,000 - $14,000, a voucher at $1500 would only be helpful to those sufficiently well off to afford the rest of the tuition. Obviously, the greatest percentage of public school parents would not have sufficient income to use the vouchers to send their children to private schools.

I value the work of private and independent schools – they contribute significantly to our community. However, it is our constitutional responsibility to address first and foremost the needs of those children who are in our public schools.

We know what it takes to provide high-quality education. It takes high-quality pre-school and after school programs, small class sizes, well prepared teachers, computers that students and teachers use effectively, support for at-risk children, and high standards for everyone! Vouchers, designed to take money from our neighborhood public schools would not help achieve a single one of these goals.

Rather than vouchers, what is needed is genuine leadership and full, fair funding of our schools. When that occurs, we allow our children and teachers to reach for the stars. Take as an example, the Smedley School, a public elementary school in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia. For the past few years, in addition to its normal budget, the Smedley School received special grants and funding as part of the Frankford Cluster's Accelerated Literacy Initiative. Such funds allowed the school to make dramatic changes. On the recent SAT-9 tests, 80% of the children scored at the level of basic or above. During the past year, 94% of the professional staff attended professional development training. Last year, class size for literacy instruction was reduced to a ratio of 1:10, teachers to students. Recognizing that 65% of these children qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, it can only be argued that full, adequate funding made this possible. Positive reforms take resources.

What could be more important than finishing the challenge of reform so that all of Philadelphia's youngsters also begin to score at the level of proficiency or above?

As Mayor, I will also expand initiatives to compliment and nurture academic success. I have proposed a comprehensive after-school program called Kids Involved and Developing Skills (KIDS Initiative). Reports indicate that there are between 50,000 and 90,000 school-age children in Philadelphia in need of after-school programs. Approximately 14,500 children are currently served by all of the programs operating in Philadelphia, leaving up to 75,000 children without constructive activities to participate in between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. That time of the day is critical - national data indicates that children who are unsupervised from 3:00 p.m. until their parents get home are at higher risk for drug, alcohol and tobacco use, delinquent behavior, violent victimization and injury when compared with their peers in constructive programs. Notably, nearly half of all juvenile crime occurs between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. After-school programs reduce not only crime but truancy. Quite simply, children in after-school programs do better in school.

With this in mind, I have committed that by the end of my first term in office, my KIDS Initiative will have made substantial in-roads in providing after-school placement for every child in the City. These programs will provide homework help, community service activities, and enrichment programs such as art, music, dance, theater, clubs and organizations, and health and recreation.

During the first year of my administration, the KIDS Initiative will increase the City's current after-school funding from the current $1.4 million up to $4.2 million, contingent upon the City's ability to put quality programs in place. Further, I will call upon the broader community, from privates businesses to our system of colleges and universities, to support various components of this City-wide effort. For example, local colleges and universities could not only provide training for program leaders, but tutors and educational support for program participants. I intend to call upon all local colleges and universities to require community service as a requirement for graduation with such students acting as mentors and tutors for our youth. I will also collaborate with the business and philanthropic communities to better coordinate and focus resources and reduce overlap. With this kind of program, our children will have the kind of balanced, overall support they need to achieve success.

Once we ‘support the system' through proper vision, leadership and understanding, I believe that we can ‘sharpen the mission' by raising the expectations and helping our students and teachers achieve success.

With regard to neighborhoods:

1. Environment First: Where a neighborhood's infrastructure is broken, fix it. However, where a neighborhood retains charm, preserve it;
2. Jobs First: Coordinate businesses and government incentives to energize neighborhood economies;
3. People First: Politicians and institutions must recognize, value, and work with civic minded citizens and groups.

I think that the key to success for Philadelphia's neighborhoods is a profound understanding of this City and an attentive and deliberate combination of environment, jobs, and people. While fixing the ‘environment' can sometimes be essential, doing so without regard to the local economy or the residents of that neighborhood will ultimately lead to failure. Successful neighborhood development incorporates all three parts of the equation.

For many of Philadelphia's neighborhoods, success begins with eliminating blight. Most people do not want to live or work in a neighborhood that is rife with abandoned cars, deteriorating houses and trash.

Currently, there is insufficient funding for blight elimination efforts. The dilemma is most striking with respect to property demolition, which is highlighted in the current Five Year Plan. The budget for demolition has not measurably increased since 1992; for example, there were 1,539 demolitions in Fiscal Year 1998, up from 1,486 in Fiscal Year 1997. Yet, with approximately 1,000 and 1,300 new ‘dangerous' buildings identified each year, the Department of Licenses and Inspections has simply not been able to reduce the inventory of dangerous buildings, despite marginally increased demolition spending. In a City that is aging quickly, unless we accelerate substantially our capacity to remove blight the decline of our neighborhoods will continue.

The tremendous amounts of potential space provide Philadelphia with a unique opportunity, and if we move aggressively to address the blight and implement community and economic development programs, we can stabilize our neighborhoods and stem future abandonment. I have introduced a sweeping plan called "Saving Neighborhoods/Fighting Blight." The proposal recognizes blight removal as a significant part of the foundation required to stabilize communities and capitalize on economic and community development opportunities. My plan, which I will introduce within the first four months of my Administration, advances a strategy which earmarks $250 million dollars solely to eliminate blight in Philadelphia's neighborhoods. The plan will establish the groundwork for pooling significant money for neighborhood stabilization, community enhancement and economic redevelopment. This initiative will convert what has come to represent failure into exciting opportunity.

The proposal includes:

• A comprehensive planning process involving a diverse group of government professionals, community leaders and City agencies so that each neighborhood has a specifically tailored blight elimination plan that defines specific goals for each community, including demolition, fencing, graffiti removal, vacant structure weatherproofing, abandoned car removal, and neighborhood greening, and proposed reuse;
• The development of a financing strategy using the City's state authorized development agencies—the Redevelopment Authority and the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development—to generate a $250 million blight elimination fund;
• The aggressive implementation of the specifically tailored neighborhood blight removal plans which would include: the demolition of abandoned properties, grading and greening vacant lots, removal of abandoned cars and graffiti removal, and the development of appropriate parks and playgrounds;
• The creation of a cabinet level position to assure the coordination of the City's blight elimination initiatives, with other City programs, including: housing, community revitalization programs, economic development programs, and Police Department initiatives.

I do value the work of civic-minded individuals and groups – and many neighborhoods have preserved their charm through their efforts. Even in neighborhoods that are struggling to survive, it is the effort of community organizations that hold them from further deterioration. My respect for these community individuals and organizations will affect the actions that I take as Mayor.

I will establish a process to involve community groups and residents in developing a comprehensive community and economic development program that will include accommodation for community parks, housing with yards and off-street parking, and new retail establishments. A strategic blight removal effort will lay the foundation for investment in community development. As Mayor, I propose to leverage dollars available for blight removal to generate a coordinated $1 billion investment program for community and economic development.

Many of the blight elimination efforts will produce jobs for community people. Ultimately, one of my major goals is to ensure that every citizen who wants to work and can work has a quality job. However, before we can attract new businesses and new homeowners to our neighborhoods, we must address the environment and work to remove and improve blighted conditions. By working with residents and community organizations to achieve our common goal we can create a better Philadelphia for all of us.

With regard to safety:

1. Get Tougher: Make both enforcement and punishment swift and sure;
2. Work Together: Form a respectful, resourceful alliance among the community, police and courts to promote safety; or
3. Attack the Roots: Stop treating crime's symptoms and start curing its root causes: lack of education, jobs and hope.

Just as our neighborhoods will require an attentive and deliberate combination of environment, jobs and people, the question of crime and safety requires a careful combination of ‘getting tougher', ‘working together', and ‘attacking the problem at the roots'. Safe neighborhoods will require a delicate balance between each part of the equation.

I have lived in a typical Philadelphia neighborhood for more than 30 years. Community policing, police deployment to curb drug trafficking, gun violence and the proliferation of drug houses are issues that I have lived with on a daily basis.

In 1998, crime rose 11% in Philadelphia; crime in most major American cities fell 7%. Even if this increase is merely the result of better record keeping by the police, the bottom line is that it is bad for Philadelphians. I know that crime is counterproductive to maintaining Philadelphia's position as a destination city. Of greater import, is the impact crime, drugs and violence have on neighborhoods and quality of life issues throughout the City. As Mayor, I will employ every available means necessary to take back the streets from those who deprive us of the crime-free and peaceful enjoyment of all the City has to offer.

During my term as President of City Council, I fought tirelessly to reduce crime in our City. I:

• led the fight for better deployment of police to battle drug trafficking in neighborhoods;
• supported ordinances to restrict the sale of assault weapons in our City;
• supported full funding of Town Watch programs, and;
• supported the establishment of the Policy Advisory Board.

As Mayor, I will work with the District Attorney, the Police Commissioner, the Director of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, Town Watch groups, and community organizations dedicated to the eradication of drugs and violence to eliminate drugs and the crime and violence they spawn in our communities and in our lives.

I will also work to expand prevention initiatives, though improved public education, high-quality after-school programs and activities for children of all ages (KIDS Initiative), additional support for truancy reduction initiatives, and collaboration with community and religious organizations working to make the future for Philadelphia's children brighter.

In addition to working to prevent crime, I will work to fight crime. As Mayor, I will attack the roots of crime, encourage and support collaboration, and make a life of crime more difficult through the following programs and initiatives:

• Ensure that 1000 Undercover Narcotics Agents are on Philadelphia's Streets. Police officers would be redeployed to undercover work related to drug trafficking, thus increasing the number of officers focused on eliminating drug suppliers, dealers and crack houses to approximately 1000. The roles carried out by the officers who are redeployed could be filled by "enforcement officers" – a new category of officers who can handle issues such as traffic control and abandoned cars.

• Enforcement Officers. Non-police officers will be used to tackle issues such as abandoned cars, traffic control and other tasks that do not require police officers. This force will be drawn from retired Philadelphia Police Officers, retired military officers and others with appropriate experience and skill. This will free Police Officers to engage in activities such as fighting drug trafficking.

• Expansion of Operation Sunrise. Operation Sunrise has had success in several neighborhoods in our City. While conditions in these neighborhoods have improved, it is critical that steps are taken to prevent these communities from slipping back to pre-Operation Sunrise conditions. Street will also expand Operation Sunrise into new neighborhoods. The Street plan would make available as many as 25% of the 1000 narcotics officers to areas targeted and reached by Operation Sunrise, for the purpose of stabilizing those communities and additional officers for the newly targeted areas.

• Build on Collaboration with Camden to Fight Drug Trafficking. Philadelphia and Camden have formed a partnership to fight drug trafficking utilizing the federal government's High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) funds. These dollars support some of the work of Operation Sunrise and allow inter-agency collaboration (Police, DEA, Coast Guard, FBI) to stop drug-trafficking. Efforts to secure these funds from the government will be expanded to fund Operation Sunrise in new neighborhoods affected by drugs and the related crime and violence.

• Expanded and Trained Town Watch for Operation Sunrise Neighborhoods. The plan will provide training and equipment for Town Watch units throughout the post-Operation Sunrise areas to work with the police to prevent a return of drug-trafficking to areas that have been successfully targeted.

• State of the Art Technology for Fighting Crime. I will work with the Police Department to ensure that the City's Police Department receives an equitable portion of the federal funds which support efforts to reduce drug-related crime in Philadelphia. I is committed to making sure the undercover teams have the most effective tools to carry out their mission – eliminating drugs from our streets.

• Shutting Down Crack Houses. My Crime Plan will specifically target crack houses, which create fear and exacerbate blight in our neighborhoods. I will expand existing efforts aimed at shutting down crack houses, and he will target landlords who allow their properties to be used for drug activity. I will support passage of the Crack House Ordinance – and support severe penalties such as fines, imprisonment and/or confiscation of property – for the landlord. I will direct the City Departments – including Licenses and Inspection, the Health Department, and the Police – to work with the District Attorney to identify and close down these crack houses.

• Intergovernmental Drug Authority. I will work with local Pennsylvania legislators and State officials to enact legislation to create an inter-county drug authority, comprises of Southeastern Pennsylvania law enforcement officials. This Authority will have police power which will be directed toward reducing drug-trafficking across county lines.

• Cross County Lines with Drugs = Felony! Drug-trafficking across county lines must stopped. This will require collaboration with local and State officials to support the passage of legislation that makes the transport of drugs across county lines a felony. Penalties that would include prison, heavy fines and the forfeiture of real and personal property.

• Working with Our Partners to Reduce Substance Abuse and the Resultant Crime. As Mayor, I, in partnership with the appropriate non-profit organizations and faith-based groups, will launch an aggressive drug education program in schools. I will also initiate thorough evaluation of existing drug rehabilitation programs and centers and work to improve and expand these, utilizing the expertise of those non-profit and faith-based groups that are now working to reduce use and addition.

• Coordinating Support to Reduce Crime. Crime reduction is more than an issue for those involved in Criminal Justice. I will develop strategies to coordinate the efforts of all the City departments to reduce crime — the District Attorney, the Sheriff, the Courts, and Probation Officers.

• Keeping Our Children Safe. Our children have the right to live in safe communities — and parents have the right to expect our communities to be safe and clean environments in which to raise children. I introduced my after-school plan, the KIDS Initiative, to provide supervised, stimulating after-school programs to keep our children off the street. I have also proposed a Truancy Plan to make sure more children are in school and those who aren't get support for themselves and their families to ensure that they get their education — the foundation for a better future.

The proliferation of guns in the United States has created a national crisis that threatens every single American family. In Philadelphia, gun violence, in conjunction with the scourge of crime and drugs, continue to drain the life-blood out of our neighborhoods. Eighty percent of the deaths in this City are attributed to crimes committed with guns. The menace of gun violence endangers communities, families, and children.

As Mayor, I will take steps to get guns off our streets and out of the hands of our children.

• Hold the Gun Manufacturers Accountable: I will direct the City Solicitor to file a lawsuit against the gun manufacturers on behalf of the City of Philadelphia. This litigation will challenge the manufacturers:

• For failing to provide sufficient built-in safety devices on the guns that are made;
• For acting negligently in the distribution of the guns they manufacture;

• For supporting and employing misleading advertising as to the safety of guns in the home.

• A Lock on Every Gun: I will establish a Gun Lock Giveaway Program to ensure that all Philadelphia gun owners have access to gun locks. It would be similar to the current smoke alarm program, and would be operated in cooperation with the Police Department.

• Expanded Gun Bounty Program: Philadelphia's Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network (PAAN) has carried out Gun Bounty Programs for several years. This year alone 846 functional guns were turned in at a cost of $50 per gun. I will lead a major city initiative in collaboration with PAAN to double the funds or vouchers available for the Gun Bounty Program and schedule at least one additional collection to coincide with the onset of summer, a time during which there are more shootings.

• Weapon-Free Schools: I will work with the Police Commissioner and the School Superintendent to ensure metal detectors are in place at every public high school and at middle schools as needed, to provide a weapon-free environment for students and teachers.

• Youth Against Guns: I will invite those organizations and agencies working with violence prevention programs and the School District, to develop and implement a comprehensive education program that will be available in schools and in communities. The focus of this initiative will be to educate youth about the dangers of guns and other weapons of violence, and to help them become advocates against the possession and use of such weapons.

The City must continue to pursue aggressive strategies to create jobs for Philadelphia. The strategy must provide a multi-pronged approach, which includes:

• A plan that creates an overall environment that enables businesses to locate and flourish in the City;

• A plan that expands and supports with specific strategies our base of small businesses;

• A plan that maximizes the investment of our City's resources in economic development; and,

• A plan that develops specific strategies for supporting critical sectors of the present economy, such as the health care industry, and lays the groundwork for the key industries of the next century.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I support the plan for continued reductions in the City's wage and business taxes provided for in the City's Five Year Financial Plan. The reasonable and steady approach to reducing taxes according to the Plan has created confidence in the City's fiscal stability that has resulted in unprecedented business retention and growth over the last several years.

Major corporations have often been the catalysts for public/private developments, and a corporation who decides to expand or relocate to Philadelphia can serve as an anchors for future economic growth. Interestingly, however, it is also the major corporations that test the fortitude of our economy when layoffs, downsizing, outsourcing, relocations and closings occur. While we must continue to welcome and foster the growth and development of large corporations, it is crucial that we refocus on small and emerging businesses throughout Philadelphia. Small businesses frequently provide the long-term stability neighborhoods need, even when they are struggling to grow or become financially viable. The simple bottom line is that small businesses are the mainstays in our neighborhoods, employers of local residents, and serve as the bedrock for our local economy. Major corporations provide the anchor, but small business provides the stability.

A comprehensive approach to the ensuring the foundation of this vital segment of our business community is essential and must be deliberate, consistent, and programmed into all economic development decisions of this local government.

As City Council President, I was the chief architect who pushed for the inclusion of small local businesses and minority, women and disabled owned businesses on projects before the City Council, including the Shops At The Airport, First Union Center, U.S. Airways International and Commuter Terminals and all TIF projects.

As Mayor, I believe a small business strategy must focus on seven areas:

1. Existing Businesses,

2. New Businesses,

3. Special Services Districts

4. Support of Existing Programs,

5. Funding Sources,

6. Collaboration with other Private/Public Investments, and

7. Tax Incentives