Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

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.