The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation to host a debate entitled "Mayor Bloomberg's Midterm Report Card"

The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation to host a debate entitled "Mayor Bloomberg's Midterm Report Card".

The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation will be hosting a debate entitled "Mayor Bloomberg's Midterm Report Card" on Tuesday, January 13th at 6:30pm at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue on the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. The panelists for the debate include Herman Badillo, former Deputy Mayor of New York City; EJ McMahon, Senior Fellow for Tax & Budgetary Studies at the Manhattan Institute; Mitchell Moss, Director of the Taub Urban Research Center at New York University, and Seymour Fliegel, President of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association. Following the panelists debate there will be a question and answer session open to the audience.

(PRWEB) January 13, 2004

Mayor Bloomberg inherited an economy reeling from recession and the aftermath of 9/11. Unfortunately, his strategy to deal with these -- a combination of tax increases and service cuts -- has pummeled his popularity. He was unsuccessful in getting concessions from the City's powerful labor unions and relations are strained. Yet the policy question remains: is his strategy the most effective for New York's long-term economic health? In the area of Education the mayor has been given an unprecedented opportunity. He successfully lobbied for Control over the Board of Education and then chose an aggressive Chancellor to streamline the notorious education bureaucracy. However, the new common curriculum is controversial and some complain that successful programs in their schools are being unfairly tossed out. Others criticize that he has not gone far enough to end social promotion. Mayor Bloomberg chooses to stake his record on education, while voters tend to vote based on the economy. The effectiveness of Bloomberg in dealing with these two issues will likely determine whether the voters give him a second term.

About The Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation

Until 2001, New York City did not have a high-profile forum devoted primarily to public policy debates.

Now, The Smith Family Foundation brings together some of the most interesting and influential policy makers and authors in the world, help to present their ideas to an audience of professionals, students, media, and other interested members of the public, the likes of which only New York City can gather.

The Foundation does not take sides, functioning only as a host and moderator. Yet, its impact on policy arguments will, we hope, be profound. With debaters and audiences of the caliber we invite, simply changing the thinking of our participants affects the broader intellectual climate. (When future historians of ideas discuss trends in twenty-first century thought, they may well record that time and again the seeds of change could be found in talks held at the Smith Foundation.)

The Foundation defends free speech and a free society through the critical examination of ideas, sponsoring debates and related activities in the New York area. In a world where philosophical arguments all too often take the form of partisan rancor and anti-intellectual appeals, the Foundation hopes to serve as a reminder that we are united by a deeper loyalty: to skeptical analysis, reason, and truth-seeking. The Foundation aims to foster informed debates that are both vigorous and civil, on topics ranging from economics to ethics, from politics to art, and beyond. Some debates will yield clear answers and some debates can never be settled, but the argumentative process itself can serve as a model of rational discourse in an often divided society.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Nia Elizabeth Shepherd

The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation

212-503-5433

NiaEShepherd@aol. com

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