Small businesses will create 60% of new jobs nationwide between 1994 and 2005. They also serve as important vehicles to success in minority communities. Yet Philadelphia is tied for last in new business creation among the nation's largest 10 cities, with only one-quarter the business start-up rate of Houston, largely because it does not have a friendly atmosphere for cultivating small businesses.

As Mayor, I will place a higher priority on assisting entrepreneurs and small businesses in Center City and the neighborhoods throughout the city to start-up and grow. I will continue the annual tax cuts in the wage and business privilege taxes; create a regulatory SWAT team to recommend repeal of unnecessary, redundant or obsolete regulations and red tape that hamper business growth; and streamline the city's regulatory processes by fully implementing a "one-stop shop" permitting and licensing system so businesses and individuals can avoid the "City Hall shuffle" from agency to agency.

I will direct a larger portion of economic development dollars for small business capital needs. I will promote and support emerging technology industries in the Avenue of Technology and other sectors of the city.

1. To direct the school district budget to the classroom first, rather than to the bureaucracy, or to private schools. In the last four years, administrative and other non-instructional costs have increased at a rate two and a half times that of classroom expenditures. This trend must be reversed to get more money directly to the teaching of our kids. I propose that this be accomplished through:
   • A School District Challenge Grant that would increase the city's and the state's investments in Philadelphia's public schools, but only if the school district can demonstrate dollar for dollar savings in administrative and other non-instructional costs, and continues to demonstrate improvement in school and student performance, including higher test scores, higher graduation rates, and higher student attendance.
   • Increased accountability and responsibility for the Mayor in oversight of the School District and negotiation labor contracts.
   • Opposing school voucher proposals that will siphon money from public school classrooms.

2. To ensure that every child will be educated in a safe, orderly and disciplined environment. Without a safe and secure learning environment, children cannot learn. This can be achieved through:
   • Alternative schools for violent or disruptive students so they can be removed from regular classrooms.
   • Safe and constructive after-school programs.
   • Effective deployment of city and school district law enforcement officers.
   • School violence prevention and safety audits to safety improvements, such as metal detectors and conflict management.
   • More effective enforcement of curfews to keep children out of trouble at night.

3. To guarantee that students will not be promoted from grade to grade unless they have mastered the basics, and that, upon graduation, they will prepared for work or for college. We can accomplish this through:
   • Reduced class sizes, starting in the early grades.
   • Strong academic standards and an end to social promotion.
   • Summer school and other remedial programs for those students struggling to meet the rigorous standards.
   • Improved student assessments that complement the academic standards, to measure what students have learned.
   • Comprehensive reform of teacher development, including peer intervention, mentoring and computer and technology training.
   • Increased parental responsibility in their children's education.

That is why I believe that the goal of safety for Philadelphia's children going to, coming from and while at school must be the threshold priority for the school district and the city. Students and teachers must be free from fear and disruption throughout the school day.

Strengthening the Zero Tolerance Policy

I will work with the City Council and with area state legislators to develop and pass a comprehensive package of school crime and safety laws that solidify the goal of zero tolerance for guns, drugs and acts of violence in our schools.

This comprehensive package would include legislation to:

1. Increase penalties for a range of crimes in order to keep guns out of the hands of kids and away from schools:
   • Transferring a firearm to a minor for use in a crime.
   • Firing, illegally possessing, selling or transferring a gun within 1,000 feet of school grounds.
   • Violent crimes on school grounds, and crimes committed using guns or dangerous weapons on school grounds.
   • Threats or intimidation against teachers, students or school employees who are witnesses to violent or criminal acts by a student on school grounds.
2. Require teachers and students to report threats by students to school officials.

To help teachers impose discipline, teachers and schools should be given immunity from suit for reasonable good faith actions to stop violent behavior by students, protect themselves or other students, or assist injured students. Teachers and other school employees should have immunity for liability for reporting an act of violence or possession or use of weapons or drugs on school grounds, as long as the report was made in good faith.

As Executive Director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, I established program to provide basic construction and building trades training to housing residents. I also aggressively recruited, hired and trained unemployed residents to work with the PHA, and required contractors to recruit residents as well.

I will use this experience to address the challenge of implementing welfare reform, without tearing the city's social fabric and writing off thousands of Philadelphians and their families. The city needs a leader who will work with:

• state government to invest more, and more intelligently, in jobs, training and education, child care, transportation, health care and other support services;
• non-profits and local government agencies to create transitional job opportunities for those at risk of losing benefits because they can't find work;
• the education and training community to deliver marketable skills;
• city businesses to hire more welfare recipients; and
• community groups and city agencies to protect the city's children at all costs.

More specifically, we need to reward, rather than punish, education. Under Pennsylvania law, young mothers and others on welfare can only receive 12 months of college or training before losing benefits. This is not enough time to make many welfare recipients job ready. An associate degree, which can greatly enhance work prospects, takes two years. Training, education and drug counseling are often better long term investments than immediate placement in a low wage, low skills job.

The work requirement imposed by state law should not be limited to temporary low-skill, make-work positions. It should be broad enough to include education and training, which will give the welfare recipients skills they can use their entire lives. I will lobby the governor and legislature to waive current requirements to allow recipients to receive training and education for up to 24 months rather than 12 months. The state could impose minimum attendance and grade requirements to protect against abuse of the system.

No other candidate has the same range and depth of experience to prepare him or her for the challenges of being Mayor. I have served the public for over twenty years, serving in the State House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980, and on the Philadelphia City Council from 1981 to 1987. Appointed to Governor Casey's cabinet as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in 1987, I took over the state's largest and most complex public agency, with a budget larger than the city's.

Through my experience heading large state and city government agencies, I know that providing better services does not necessarily require expanding government. As state Secretary of Public Welfare, I expanded health care for pregnant women and young children, increased child support recoveries and expanded affordable child care opportunities for families, and established a program to move nearly 200,000 parents from welfare to work - all while reducing the size of the Department. Despite expanded responsibilities, the Department had fewer workers when I stepped down as Secretary than it did when I took over four years earlier.

At the Philadelphia Housing Authority - the fourth largest housing authority in the country -- I initiated management reforms, organizational restructuring, and service improvements that restored PHA's financial integrity and led the federal government to remove the PHA from its list of "troubled" housing agencies.

As a City Councilman, I worked to increase the number of children moving from abusive homes to permanent, stable and loving families by streamlining the adoption process.

To improve the quality of child abuse workers, I mandated training for workers on how to identify and respond to child abuse.

With DPW, I championed the "One Church, One Child" program to work with churches to find caring homes for neglected, abused or orphaned children.

Also at DPW, I oversaw a 59% increase in funding for child welfare services to protect children from abuse.

I created the "Children's Trust Fund" to combat child abuse, and reformed the child welfare system to keep families together and keep children out of institutions.

• Doubled state funding for bridge housing, case management, emergency assistance and other services for Pennsylvania's homeless while at DPW.
• Increased state homeless funding for Philadelphia by 165%.
• Increased state community mental health services by over $60 million and overall mental health services by over $100 million -- Pennsylvania ranked 3rd in the country in per capita spending on mental health.
• Started an intensive case management program to improve services to those with mental disabilities.
• Took on the challenge of closing Byberry State Hospital and moving services for residents to other facilities and the community.
• Fought attempts to cut the state General Assistance program for single adults.
• Expanded PHA's housing for the homeless, through projects such as the Steps Project that provided permanent housing and support services for homeless people affected with AIDS/HIV or mental disabilities.
• Expanded PHA's efforts to return vacant housing to use make more units available for those at risk of homelessness.

A Mayor, I would propose to:

• Consolidate and coordinate all housing and homeless programs in the city within one agency.
• Have that agency develop a long range five year plan - with non-profits and housing and homeless advocates -- for expanding affordable housing and ending homelessness with an emphasis on maximizing and coordinating city, state, federal, foundation and non-profit funding.
• Institute the second stage of the city's recovery to focus on the neighborhoods, in addition to the current focus on center city -- this will promote jobs for neighborhood residents, including those at risk of being homeless.
• Speed up the recovery of abandoned buildings by allowing the city to identify, pursue and take over tax delinquent and other abandoned buildings. The city should have an effective early warning system to locate houses at risk of abandonment and tax delinquency so the city can work to have the property turned over without having to go through the tax sale process.
• The only candidate to propose a comprehensive welfare reform plan to address the problems with the state's welfare reform program, which:
  • Allows those on welfare pursuing a degree or a skills training certificate to continue education and training rather than be forced into a make-work job.
  • Calls on the state to use unspent federal funds for expanded child care and transportation services, and substance abuse treatment.
  • Calls on the state to guarantee a job opportunity for all those meeting the welfare cutoff deadline who are willing to work.

Aggressive disruption by police of open drug corners and other sites of drug activity. According to Commissioner Timoney, as of February there were 4,669 drug selling location in Philadelphia - 3,230 indoor drug sites and 1,439 outdoor sites. I support efforts to create narcotics units in precincts where high drug activity exists to target and arrest drug dealers. I also support policies that get police out of their cars to disrupt drug corners. This can be accomplished through greater street supervision. I will also have officers ride with probation and parole officers, who have greater authority to stop, detain and arrest offenders on probation and parole.

A requirement that city prisoners pass a drug test to prove they are drug-free before they can be released from jail. About 80% of inmates in Philadelphia's jails have drug or alcohol abuse problems. I will work with state officials, the District Attorney, probation and parole officials and judges to impose drug treatment and testing requirements for offenders leaving jail and on parole. This includes intensive parole with frequent drug testing that can reduce recidivism by drug related offenders.

Regional drug task forces that involve the federal, state and various local government law enforcement agencies coordinating their activities. Some task forces are in place already, and I will urge the Police Commissioner to ensure that the Philadelphia police are fully involved.

An estimated 40,000 children in Philadelphia between the ages of 6 and 12 are left unsupervised after school. Tens of thousands more young teens are unattended as well. Yet only about 37 after-school programs exist in the entire Philadelphia public school system.

Parents in Philadelphia therefore must have greater access to quality after school enrichment programs for their children. Not only has it been demonstrated that such programs enhance student achievement, but they also ensure that youngsters are engaged in meaningful activities, off the streets, and not subject to the negative influences that might otherwise concern parents.

Law enforcement and education officials agree that after-school options in schools, churches and community centers can help children stay out of trouble, and keep them from becoming victims of crime themselves. Studies have proven that quality youth development programs can cut crime dramatically by offering school-age kids a safe haven from criminal activity, and providing constructive activities that teach them the values and skills they will need to succeed in life.

A study of an after-school recreation program in one public housing project found that the number of juvenile arrests declined by 75 percent in the project served by the after-school program, but increased by 67 percent in a comparable housing project. Another recent study of low-income children attending high-quality after-school programs showed that they spent more time in academically enriching activities and less time watching television, got along better with others, and had better grades and school conduct than other children. A recent University of Wisconsin study showed after-school programs had reduced vandalism and helped children become more cooperative, better at handling conflicts, more interested in reading, and better students.

I will establish a plan for expansion of after-school programs through a combination of targeted federal, state and local governmental funding, corporate assistance and a reasonable sliding scale fee. Lower income families would have access to after-school programs at little or no cost. By investing $2 million in district funds, matched by an equal amount of funds by these other sources, we can expand after-school programs dramatically -- more than doubling the number of schools with after-school programs. This should be further expanded in future years as resources permit.