Though crime remains the dominant political issue, education emerged as a central focus Tuesday as Mobile’s mayoral candidates connected youth violence to Alabama’s largest school system.

While the candidates acknowledged the city has little formal control over the school district, they argued the next mayor must engage with it anyway.

“How can we support our schools?” asked former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis. “It’s a county system. The mayor, some people might say, it’s not your problem. But it’s affecting the mayor of Mobile and that is the mayor’s job.”

From career tech to after-school programs, candidates at the 90-minute forum at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Midtown pointed to education as the key lever to pull if the city hopes to stem its surge in youth crime.

“The city is not nearly as involved in helping our school system as it should be. I’ll change that,” said Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson.

Still, exactly how a mayor could influence Alabama’s largest school district remains an open question. The Mobile County Public School System serves more than 50,000 students and operates independently from city government.

In recent years, security at schools and sports venues have brought the two government bodies together in purchasing security systems or sharing resources like police officers.

But publicly, the two sides are separate and are focused on different policy matters. A rare meeting at Government Plaza involving school administrators and the Mobile City Council to provide updates on career tech programs, among other things, was canceled last December. It has yet to be rescheduled.

None of the candidates talked about how they would work with the school board or the existing administration to make education a citywide priority. But they said that boosting opportunities, especially workforce development programs, was critical to reducing youth violence.

State Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said that Mobile needs to create a “pipeline” for building trades and welders. She said that she has met with Superintendent Chresal Threadgill to discuss projects, including new programs bolstered with additional state funding this year.

“Training the kids to stay here, that’s my goal,” she said. “To make sure superior talent stays here.”

In calling education Mobile’s “primary problem,” Drummond also praised the school district’s Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP) scores and advancements in Signature Academies and vocational education.

“We are building a system we can be proud of,” she said, but then added that “what we got to do in Mobile is we have to prop up our education system by any means necessary.”

Former Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine said Mobile needs to follow Baldwin County’s lead in career preparation education. He repeatedly cited the Baldwin County School System’s $100 million preparatory academy as an example Mobile should follow. The Baldwin County school opened last summer and offers career tech and vocational education in Loxley.

The Baldwin County school offers a rare mix of competitive academics with real-world, on-the-job-training of specialized vocations including healthcare, technology, skilled trades, and creative fields.

“They have a $100 million facility now and they are training Baldwin County high school students who will be ready at graduation for jobs coming to Mobile and Baldwin counties,” Prine said. “There is no reason why the leadership of Mobile has not been ahead of this for the past 10 years.”

Other candidates also linked the two issues, emphasizing the importance of pushing for more vocational training within Mobile.

Cheriogotis, who was a district judge until resigning from the position to run for mayor in January, said he would often see young men in his courtroom who almost uniformly “shared a look of hopelessness” who couldn’t envision a future without crime.

“You don’t need a college degree to be successful in Mobile,” he said, adding that he wanted to build on the thousands of new blue-collar jobs being added within the city. “I want to see more of that happening in high school and more kids with electrician certificates.”

Hudson, who has approached the school board in the past for funding support for projects like a new aquatics center, said it was “incumbent for the city to be a strong partner with the Mobile County Public School System.”

She encouraged the city to work with local businesses and industry to grow their talent pools.

“We have a large community in Mobile of potential workers in our system,” she said. “We need to provide opportunities and make sure they are available to young people.”

Hudson, among the candidates, was the only one to offer a specific creation through city government – the addition of a new Department of Economic Revitalization. Though not directly related to education, the office would focus on boosting certain neighborhoods within the city, focusing on economic development initiatives.

“Until all areas of the city are thriving and doing well economically, then we are not doing well,” Hudson said. “This department would provide a plan to move forward to (improve) these areas.”