Monday’s mayoral forum at Delgado Community College proved to be a somewhat staid affair. Whether due to the Saints’ victory the night before or the debate’s inconvenient start time of noon, only four of the six leading candidates made it to the event, with both John Georges and Mitch Landrieu absent. In front of a sparse audience, the candidates repeated many of the same talking points (and jokes) they’ve delivered at previous forums across the city.

The focus of the debate was largely on crime and the need for a new police chief and greater accountability within the NOPD. The candidates did not address ways to foster better understanding and relationships between youth and the NOPD, though Nadine Ramsey nicely highlighted the link between New Orleans’ historically faulty education system and the city’s high crime rate and also spoke of increasing mentorship opportunities in local businesses for city youth. James Perry and Troy Henry both reiterated their commitment to expanding and improving NORD, with Perry contending that if NORD received the funding levels it has had in the past, the city’s crime rate would plummet in the summer months. However, throughout all the debates, despite the attention they’ve paid to it, the candidates have yet to seriously commit to or even really discuss a restructuring of NORD that would place the department in a separate district outside of city government — one of the Afterschool Partnership’s 10 for 2010 priorities for the next mayor. NORD can’t remain dependent on the whims of city government.

Rob Couhig has constantly hammered home his point that high taxes in New Orleans drive away residents and potential businesses and his promises of budgetary transparency remain the most encouraging of all the candidates in the field. But until the candidates start to provide concrete funding plans, it’s hard not to remain skeptical of the potential of many of their promised initiatives actually coming to fruition.

So what did we learn from the mayoral town hall on education Thursday night at Warren Easton Senior High School? Well for one, we learned that all six candidates are at least talking the talk on making education and kids a top priority in their administration. Whether this is mostly campaign posturing or a legitimate sign of hope for New Orleans’ youth remains to be seen. But it was refreshing to hear Mitch Landrieu, Troy Henry, and James Perry stressing the need for improving and enhancing NORD – and coordinating the RTA with afterschool activities so kids actually have a way of getting to facilities and activities. And almost all of the candidates addressed the link between a lack of out of school programs and opportunities for youth and crime.

There was also near universal support among the candidates for depoliticizing NORD and the school system and not allowing either to become havens of sinecures for friends of the mayor. Rob Couhig had an especially strong answer on the need for increased transparency in the city budgeting process. He wants line items in the budget rather than lump sums assigned to departments so that every New Orleans resident can see where the money in all facets of city governance, including NORD, are being directed. Perry spoke of remodeling NORD on Baton Rouge’s afterschool programs and boosting spending from the $3 million currently allocated to NORD to a figure closer to the $40 million Louisiana’s capital spends on their recreation department. John Georges voiced his support for a new millage dedicated to funding NORD, which was especially notable because it’s the only area in which he would advocate a tax raise.

Where the debate got somewhat murky is when many of the candidates turned to discussing changing the culture of schools in New Orleans. It’s all well and good to encourage the promotion of “equity” and parental involvement in the education of their children both inside and outside of school. But support alone for an idea won’t make it a reality. Candidates were only given a minute to answer each question and perhaps this structure helps to account for the lack of specificity the candidates offered on numerous issues. But New Orleans’ youth need more than a mayor that can say all the right things. They need a mayor who actually has a concrete plan for funding and rebuilding the opportunities available to them in this city.