On May 5, 1998, Pioneer Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary with the inaugural Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy. Governor Arne H. Carlson of Minnesota delivered the keynote address. In 1997 Governor Carlson, with bipartisan support, pushed through the most comprehensive education reform in the nation despite fierce union opposition.
In March, 1998, Pioneer Institute sponsored a forum featuring internationally-recognized educator Dr. Lorraine Monroe. Dr. Monroe’s career reflects a lifetime commitment to excellence, even in the most difficult and inhospitable conditions.
1998 Better Government Competition – Criminal Justice
On July 29, 1997, Pioneer Institute hosted a conference on social service delivery in the Commonwealth. Robert Melia, author of Pioneer’s White Paper entitled Public Profits From Private Contracts and former vice president of Policy Studies, Inc, used child support enforcement as a case study to compare private versus public delivery of human services.
On July 29, 1997, Pioneer Institute sponsored a conference on social service delivery in the Commonwealth. Joe Loconte, Deputy Editor of Policy Review, presented the findings of his book Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services, which was commissioned by Pioneer in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture.
On June 24, 1997, Eloise Anderson, director of the California Department of Social Services, delivered the keynote address at Pioneer Institute’s Annual Meeting. Anderson, who oversees 4,200 employees and an annual budget in excess of $16 billion, posed a series of policy questions states are facing as they address welfare reform.
On May 30, 1997 the Northeastern University College of Business Administration hosted a discussion about the proposed Boston Convention Center that was co-sponsored by Pioneer Institute.
On March 13, 1997, Dr. Howard Fuller, Director of Marquette University’s Institute for the Transformation of Learning and former Superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools, addressed a Pioneer Institute Forum about the need for urban school reform.
On December 10, 1996, Pioneer Institute introduced its latest book, Toward a Safer Workplace: Reform and Deregulation of Workers Compensation, by James R. Chelius and Edward Moscovitch.
On November 20, 1996, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education, The Center for Innovation in Urban Education at Northeastern University, and Pioneer Institute’s Charter School Resource Center sponsored a day-long conference on charter school accountability. The keynote address was delivered by former U.S. Secretary of Education and Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander.
On October 23, 1996, a forum co-sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Pioneer Institute focused on the continuing controversy surrounding Massachusetts’ charter schools.
On July 25, 1996, Pioneer Institute held a forum that focused on the state and direction of the Boston Public School System. The forum was co-sponsored by the Boston Private Industry Council. Our panelists represented viewpoints that ranged from a positive appraisal of the city’s current school reforms, to the opinion that only a fundamental restructuring of the system can bring real progress. Though the panelists have obvious policy differences, they share one characteristic: each is a Boston parent.
On May 30, 1996, Pioneer Institute board member and former Secretary for Administration and Finance Peter Nessen, now a special advisor to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on health care issues, addressed a Pioneer Forum about the then- proposed merger between Boston City Hospital and University Hospital.
On April 19, 1996, Pioneer Institute held a forum to preview our new book, Bilingual Education in Massachusetts: The Emperor Has No Clothes. For 25 years, the Commonwealth has mandated a single approach to teaching students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in Massachusetts public schools, called transitional bilingual education (TBE), despite the fact that there is virtually no reliable evidence to support its effectiveness.
On January 31, 1996, Pioneer Institute Executive Director James A. Peyser delivered an address to the Boston Economic Club in which he proposed radical reforms to the structure of public education. After 30 years of stagnation and decline, only fundamental structural change can bring about lasting improvement in public education.
On January 11, 1996, Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Lawrence W. Reed addressed a Pioneer Forum on the course of education reform in Michigan.
On November 27, 1995, Professor James Q. Wilson delivered the keynote address at a dinner to honor the winners of Pioneer Institute’s fifth annual Better Government Competition. In his address, Professor Wilson discussed the problems of illegitimacy and proposed that young, pregnant, unmarried girls who wish to establish an independent household at public expense be given this support only on the condition that they live in a family shelter or group home managed under private auspices, including religious groups.
In our November 1995 Policy Dialogue, “Responses to a Harvard Study on School Choice: Is It a Study at All?” we gathered nine school choice experts to critique a draft manuscript of Who Chooses, Who Loses? Culture, Institutions, and the Unequal Effects of School Choice, edited by Harvard Professors Richard Elmore, Gary Orfield, and Bruce Fuller.
On August 3, 1995, Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld delivered an address to a Pioneer Institute Forum in which he announced a massive downsizing and restructuring review of state government. In the following pages, Pioneer Institute has reproduced an edited transcript of the speech. My hat is off to Pioneer for sponsoring this delightful event. It’s extremely generous of you to even let me in the door. Charlie Baker, Steve Wilson, Jim Peyser — I make a point of stealing somebody from Pioneer every chance I get.
In August 1995, Pioneer Institute hosted a roundtable discussion on welfare reform in Massachusetts. The roundtable was held as a preamble to an upcoming book by Joe Loconte on the role of community organizations in the provision of social services.
A draft of a book entitled School Choice: The Cultural Logic of Families, the Political Rationality of Institutions, soon to be published by Teachers College Press, is receiving a lot of attention in new papers and in education circles- due to a widely circulated Harvard press release.
Pioneer Institute recently organized a roundtable for school officials to discuss their experiences with inter-district public school choice. The participants exchanged view s on the current state of the choice program in Massachusetts.
On May 23, 1995, a Pioneer Institute Forum addressed the debate currently raging over the proposed construction of a combined sports/ convention facility, or “megaplex,” in Boston.