Reporting from Tuesday’s education-issues mayoral forum

‘Tis the season for a whole lot of mayoral forums all across Philadelphia about a variety of issues.

What made Tuesday night’s education forum at South Philly’s G.W. Childs School stand out from the pack?

The fact that it was moderated by WHYY/NewsWorks’ Kevin McCorry, of course.

On Wednesday, McCorry talked about the experience on NewsWorks Tonight. To wit:

I had the pleasure of moderating what became a pretty lively event, held before a large crowd in the auditorium of G.W. Childs elementary school in South Philadelphia.

Five of six candidates attended: state Sen. Anthony Williams, former City Councilman Jim Kenney, former Common Pleas Court judge Nelson Diaz, former state Sen. Milton Street (brother of John Street, former mayor), and former Philadelphia Gas Works vice president of communications Doug Oliver.

Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham originally confirmed attendance, but later dropped out.

With the Philadelphia School District’s asking for another $103 million dollars from the city, the first question posed was whether the candidates would fulfill that request.

All candidates said “yes,” but all said they opposed Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to do so by raising the city property tax by 9.3 percent.

Check out the rest of the story via this link.