Alright then, Mr. Mayor, enforce your silly curfew. But before you do that change the law so that violators and their parent or parents get 90 days (no more, no less) in the slammer.

Sound a bit harsh? Okay, send first-time violators to wherever Rick Mariano is going. But repeat offenders should go to a real jail for a longer period of time.

I agree with Riverside Mick. Curfew should be enforced, but what to do if the parents/teens don't pay the fines they were issued? What's going to happen? More fines? A boot on their car? Time in Jail? I've been talking about this for months on phillyblog, and kids are out everywhere until all hours of the night. The parents won't care, unless it really affects them.

We won't be able to stop the violence in Philadelphia until the culture of this city changes, and residents embrace the concept of unity.

We need to move thousands of citizens from the underground economy - where drugs and prostitution are core industries - to the knowledge economy.

To do that, we need to provide education and job training.

While traveling years ago, I told a fellow passenger that a young person I mentored in Philadelphia told me drugs were available in her school, but there were not enough school books to go around. The students had to share.

He replied," Every one in your city should go to jail. That's a crime."

He is right.

The time has come for journalists reporting on crime to change the type of questions they are asking: Instead of asking the mayor what to do, ask the wealthy people moving into the city who do not real estate taxes if they are willing to make a sacrifice and pony up, for the sake of our kids.

Ask the employers who don't hire minorities, if they are willing to commit to fair and inclusive hiring policies as people move into the mainstream economy.

Ask the business community if they are willing to focus on the interest of the city's small businesses, who hire minorities.

Ask the people who send their children to private schools if they believe all children deserve a quality education.

If we continue to do what we are doing, nothing will change.

Where have you been for the past 40 years, Linda?
Tens of millions of dollars--public, private, corporate--have gone toward education, job training, rehabilitation, housing, food, clothing...you name it. More money and more social programs are NOT the answer.

I've been covering education and writing about the disparities in funding between rich and poor school districts, Ellen.

Students in Philadelphia have fewer advanced-level academic programs; they are more likely to to get teachers that are young and inexperience; and they are curricula that are tailored to teach white children and not minorities.

Community College of Philadelphia, which provides career training and a gateway to higher education, has the poorest students and the highest tuition in the state.

District progress was fueled by funding increases

by Paul Socolar

Back in 2000, the School District of Philadelphia was struggling with stagnating test scores, a systemwide academic crisis, and looming bankruptcy. Schools were scraping by on an austerity budget that amounted to less than $7,800 per student.

But five years later, the School District in 2005 found itself able to spend almost 40 percent more – $10,800 per pupil, an increase of $3,000 per student.

Over those five years between 2000 and 2005, the rate of growth in District spending per student averaged a hefty 7 percent a year, according to data from the state Department of Education.

And those significant annual increases in spending per student were soon accompanied by significant annual increases in test scores, at least on most tests in the K-8 grades

Linda, you seem like a nice person but naive, misinformed, and very much out of touch. I question your research and your findings. Did you begin your thesis by writing the conclusion?

It is always important to ask others, "Where do you get your information from?"

We need to understand others' experiences if we are to put their comments in proper context.

So, let me share some of the journey that produced the insights/research of which I speak:

1) For nearly 10 years, I covered education for a series of major newspapers. I interviewed everyone from the Education Secretary, to the teachers, to the kindergarten students.

2) I served as a national correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In that capacity, I covered the landmark case involving the Edgewood School District, an impoverished school district in San Antonio that argued successfully in a lawsuit that the state of Texas's use of property taxes to fund school discriminated against poor students.

After Edgewood won the case, the Court ordered the State Legislature to develop an equitable system for financing schools. Minority achievement then rose, an achievement that President Bush actually took credit for while he ran for President.).

3) For the past 10 years, I have owned and operated my own business in Philadelphia. I have worked with low-wealth homeowners battling foreclosures as well as with the organized community anti-crime network, a grass-roots organization that seeks to find an organized community response to crime.

I write national column on cultural differences, which is published in the Houston Chronicle. My workshops and columns provide readers the tools they need to adjust their cultural shades - which are the social, political and racial filters that prevent us from seeing or appreciating other viewpoints.

Nevil, can you share the steps you have taken to gather and collect reliable information and data on the topic of violence and poverty?

It is important that we critique and judge the information, not the person.

Linda,

I'm a school district teacher, and I see day-to-day what's going on in the schools. While money is always helpful, it's certainly not going to cure the problem. The main problem with low test scores, truancy, and crime is basically the family. Much of the family structure is completely eroded in many of the communities. The kids learn from their parents, and they learn almost nothing, or all the wrong things. Many parents of the low-income areas don't value education. In fact, they see being uneducated as a virtue. The kids learn this and coupled with pop gangsta culture, are quickly enveloped in a downward spiral of drugs and crime. The kids are taught the negative at a young age, and are usually shut off by the time they're teens. It's a viscious cycle, and it needs to be stopped. But, before more money is poured into the flames of this problem, these communities need positive leadership. They need a credible leader who is spotless, and admirable. They need a different leader than the current gangsta' culture. Without leadership, all the money in the world won't help this problem.

The city should do sonmething about the kids terrible parents. Curfew will be a joke, the kids have no families at home.

The city should do something about the kids terrible parents. Curfew will be a joke, the kids have no families at home.

We should change the name of our city from Philadelphia to Killadelphia.
A nice town to visit during the day but get out by sundown!!!!!!!

What really gets me about this whole issue is that this is a problem we CAN solve. It's not rocket science. New York has been using research-based law enforcement methods to cut its homicide rate down to the lowest of any big city in the country. Sure, no city will ever eliminate homicide, but proven law enforcement methods work! These methods are out there and well known. Why are we teetering around the edges about what may work? WE KNOW WHAT WORKS! We just need a city government committed to doing it.

Concealed carry for law-abiding citizens who pass a training course would help.

Ever wonder why most places with strict gun-control have large minority populations, while places with gun freedom are largely white? Could it be that, subliminally, nonwhite folks aren't trusted to be armed, law-abiding citizens? Ever wonder why California started on the gun-control route only after Black Panthers started walking around with legal guns?

Gun control is racist.