Dwight Evans
Age: 52. Residence: West Oak Lane. Education: Germantown High School, 1971; Community College of Philadelphia, 1973; La Salle University, 1975. Business experience: Urban League job developer, 1976-79; Philadelphia public-school teacher, 1975-76; Rolling Hill Hospital food service staff, 1968-71.
Age:
52.
Residence: West Oak Lane.
Education: Germantown High School, 1971; Community College of Philadelphia, 1973; La Salle University, 1975.
Business experience: Urban League job developer, 1976-79; Philadelphia public-school teacher, 1975-76; Rolling Hill Hospital food service staff, 1968-71.
Political and government experience: State representative for the 203d District, 1981-present; ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, 1990-present, and now its chairman; West Oak Lane block captain, 1975-80.
Income: $86,000 legislative salary.
Family: The second-oldest of five children, Evans is a bachelor.
Increase the police force by at least 500 officers.
Seek to bring John Timoney back as police commissioner.
Lobby the General Assembly to enable Philadelphia to enact gun-control laws.
Create gun-free zones around schools, libraries and day-care centers, with tougher penalties for violators.
Invest more in crime-fighting technology such as surveillance cameras and gunshot-detection equipment.
Provide low-interest home loans for police who live in neighborhoods they serve.
Raise the sales tax on guns and ammunition.
Upgrade the victim-witness- protection program.
Increase jail space.
Diversify Philadelphia's building trades to provide more jobs for people of color, thus creating more pathways to legitimate self-sufficiency.
On funding: Increase the district's share of city property-tax revenue from 58 to 60 percent. Seek to boost private donations to the district by getting a big name to lead the effort. Seek more state funding with a pledge to hire more outside groups to run schools.
On governance: No change. He cites improved test scores and more school choices as reasons to keep the district on its current course.
On education: Keep Edison and other outside managers with proven results. Focus on cutting the dropout rate and expanding access to early-childhood programs. Free up city land for new schools. Reduce class sizes.
On charter schools: Create more charters and more school options.
On safety: Seek more conflict-resolution strategies, and increase spots in alternative schools for disruptive students.
On the ethics plan: Endorses the Committee of Seventy's agenda.
On public financing of campaigns: Supports.
On campaign contribution caps: Supports. Evans is pushing legislation that would grant Philadelphia the authority to set its own campaign-finance laws.