For Immediate Release

Contact: Anthony Twyman
Public Relations Coordinator
Community College of Philadelphia
Office: (215) 751-8082
atwyman@ccp.edu

COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA CONFERS DEGREE ON PHILADELPHIA MAYOR JOHN STREET

PHILADELPHIA, June 4, 2007 - Community College of Philadelphia will confer a Doctorate of Humane Letters degree on the Honorable John F. Street, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, tomorrow, June 5 at 3:00 p.m. at City Hall, Room 202.

The degree will be presented by Community College of Philadelphia President Stephen M. Curtis. The College is awarding the honorary degree in recognition of Street's leadership as mayor of Philadelphia and his support for public education.

Mayor Street recognizes that educated citizens are one of the keys to securing Philadelphia's growth and future. The College shares this view and works everyday to help Philadelphians achieve their academic goals. The mayor also has supported many social service programs and funded after-school and youth programs, truancy and delinquency prevention programs, parenting education, and school-based services for children with behavioral problems.

Mayor Street graduated from Conshohocken High School and worked his way through Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, where he studied English. In 1975, he earned his Juris Doctorate from Temple University Law School.

Elected to Philadelphia City Council in 1979, he assumed office in 1980. For nearly 20 years, he represented the city's Fifth Councilmanic District, distinguishing himself as a fighter for working people and neighborhoods. During his council term, he succeeded in getting passed a liquor-by-the-drink tax that resulted in an additional $23 million per year for Philadelphia public schools.

He retired from City Council on December 17, 1998, to run for mayor of Philadelphia, and was elected to that post on November 2, 1999. Upon taking office in January 2000, Mayor Street offered citizens his "Vision for a Better Philadelphia," which included better schools for children, cleaner neighborhoods for families, safer streets for residents and a strong, healthy local economy. Four years later, he was reelected to a second term as mayor to continue his work.

Under his stewardship, Philadelphia school students have made solid progress in educational achievement, an outgrowth of the partnership between the city and the state through the School Reform Commission.

Student test scores have risen four years in a row. Every high school student is now required to take African-American history. Full-day kindergarten has been instituted and class sizes have been reduced. Technologically and academically advanced schools have been developed, including the Science Leadership Academy at the Franklin Institute, the National Constitution Center Partnership High School and the School of the Future in Fairmount Park, which is a partnership between the School District and Microsoft Corporation.

In addition, on Sept. 28, 2006, Mayor Street signed an executive order creating the Philadelphia Education Advisory Taskforce to continue to set the stage for continued education improvements with a focus on educational and fiscal goals for 2010 and 2015.

Aside from his work on education, the mayor's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative has changed the face of neighborhoods throughout the city. Through NTI the city has removed 227,000 abandoned cars; cleaned graffiti from more than 500,000 properties; removed more than 40,000 dead trees from streets and vacant lots and planted more than 50,000 trees; demolished more than 6,000 dangerous buildings; created more than 28,000 units of housing, both market rate and affordable housing; and cleaned 31,000 vacant lots, many for the first time in decades.

Since he took office as mayor, the city also made large financial commitments to improving public safety and enhancing the quality of life. The city budgets $2.5 billion in spending on the Police Department alone in its current five-year plan.

The mayor also has set the city on a path to be a technology leader through his innovative Wireless Philadelphia initiative, which will create a 135-square-mile Internet hot spot in the city, providing wireless access to residents and helping to bridge the digital divide for children and disadvantaged families.