A panel discussion organized by Pioneer Institute’s new Center for Entrepreneurship recently presented varying viewpoints on state and local regulation of smallscale businesses as part of a conference on “Microenterprise in Boston: Building the Entrepreneurial City of the Future.”

Dr. Jerome H. Grossman spoke June 12, 2000, at a Pioneer Forum in connection with the release of a Pioneer White Paper he authored entitled “The Economic History of Health Care in Massachusetts 1990-2000.” The paper explores the economic forces shaping health care in Massachusetts today and offers market-based recommendations. Dr. Grossman served as Chairman and CEO of New England Medical Center from 1979 to 1995. Currently a Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Chairman and CEO of Lion Gate Management Corporation, a health care information technology and consulting firm , he was named to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences in 1983 and served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute in 1996.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Chester E. Finn, Jr. spoke February 17, 2000, on "Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education" at a Forum cosponsored by Pioneer Institute and Harvard Graduate School of Education. Finn, President of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, surveyed the nationwide charter school movement, based on an exhaustive study of the same title he recently published with co-authors Bruno V. Manno and Gregg Vanouerk.

On April 21, 1999, Pioneer Institute held the second annual Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy. "Transition from Communism: A Decade After," was delivered by Václav Klaus, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and current President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament.

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.

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 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 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 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.