At first, the Ward 6 Democrats had simply organized a forum to discuss the state of the city’s schools. Now they may be hosting the first, if most informal debate between mayoral candidates Adrian Fenty and Linda Cropp. Both Fenty and Cropp have announced that they plan on making an appearance at the forum — set for 7 p.m. tonight at the Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club, 261 17th St., SE — which will also include Council-members Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) and Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), D.C. school board member Tommy Wells, and various education activists.

The forum will zero in on the School Modernization Financing Act of 2005, an ambitious piece of legislation endorsed by the City Council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue in mid-July that would allow D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams to borrow $1 billion for the repair and modernization of public school facilities. The bill faces a vote before the council’s Committee on Education, Recreation, and Libraries on October 12, after which it could head to the full council for a vote.

The state of city schools is sure to be an issue in the 2006 mayoral campaign, and considering the barbs that Cropp and Fenty have already traded in and out of the council chambers, tonight’s forum may well serve as soap-box from which they both outline their plans for school and education reform in the District. Fenty is one of eight co-sponsors of the legislation (and the only mayoral hopeful whose name is attached to it), so expect him to take credit for the initiative while deflecting Cropp’s likely claims that the proposal is financially risky.

Fix Our Schools, an organization promoting school repairs, today similarly announced a lobbying effort targeting the members of the council’s Education Committee, stating, “If our city can build convention centers and hotels and stadiums, it can build schools.”

DCist will be attending tonight’s forum, hoping for some sparks, and reporting back in full detail.