Highlight reel from second Philadelphia mayoral debate

The second mayoral debate in the run up to the Nov. 3 general election took place Monday at the studios of public broadcasting station WHYY. Republican Melissa Murray Bailey and Democrat Jim Kenney faced off, with three independent candidates excluded from debate.

With the election just a few weeks out, both candidates reiterated their stances on familiar issues like schools and jobs. If you've been following the race, you already know both candidates, unsurprisingly, are for 'em.

But even this late in the game, there were some revealing moments:

- Kenney floated a new idea to help fund schools by leasing the city's luxury boxes at the sports stadiums. Hizzoner gets about 8,000 gratis tickets a year to plush suites at the stadiums, sometimes referred to as the "Mayor's Box," a perk for the financial support the city offered to construct the sports complex. The former councilman in 2013 shot off a letter to Mayor Michael Nutter saying the boxes could generate $1 million a year.

- Quizzed on whether he would handle the upcoming Democratic National Convention differently than the recent papal visit, Kenney gave the side eye to magnate Stephen Starr, who had publicly bemoaned a lack of business during Popemania. "Stephen Starr and his restaurateur buddies will be happy with who's coming here [for the DNC]," Kenney said, referring to expected busloads full of monied conventioneers. "The papal visit was not a moneymaking venture, it was a pilgrimage...you don't have pilgrims eating in five star restaurants."

- Bailey made an ambitious claim that she could achieve a 100 percent literacy rate among Philadelphia 3rd graders by the end of her first term, drawing audible murmurs from the crowd. Bailey said the literacy rate at some schools is as low as 8 percent currently. Although she didn't know how much it would cost, she would devote "as many resources as possible" to education, even if it meant cutting other city services, while seeking reforms. Moderator Kevin McCorry then asked exactly what she would reform, Bailey referenced a story about textbooks that had been left behind in the basement of a recently shuttered school that could have been reused. "I don't think algebra has changed in 20 years, I don't think American history has changed or some of the classics that we're reading," she said.

- The Republican also borrowed a handy Iraq War-era term, recommending a "surge" of 500 police officers to fight crime. She said the program — with a five year cost of around $80 million — would be paid for with cost saving measures.

- Kenney tossed out a new idea that fell into the schools column tonight, saying he wanted to work with the city's construction unions to boost job training. "We're working on a plan to have a really comprehensive building trades academy," he said. "A training center for people that want to be in the building trades, teaching the skills necessary to do the math, take the test and to be placed in a job working in the building trades." Kenney, whose candidacy was backed by electrician union boss John Dougherty, mentioned the idea along with boosting job training at the community college and public schools to help students transition into jobs and lower poverty for inner city kids.