***** Reformatted. Please distribute CLINTON/GORE ON HELPING AMERICA'S CHILDREN For far too long we have failed to address the needs of America's children. We do not provide them with adequate health care, the best education or protection from violence, and we do not address the special problems of the disadvantaged. We need to achieve bold reform to help every child reach his or her full potential. It is time to put children first. The next generation of young people should not be America's first to grow into a less certain future than their parents. Bill Clinton and Al Gore will make sure that America's children are prepared for the 21st century -- with the education, the health care, and the safe neighborhoods they need. Our children and our country cannot afford another four years of neglect. It is time for action. The Clinton/Gore Plan Guarantee quality, affordable health care * Control costs, improve quality, and cover everybody under a national health care plan. The Clinton/Gore plan will require insurers to offer a core package of benefits, including pre-natal care and other important preventive care benefits. * Create a nationwide program like Arkansas' Good Beginnings to provide health care services to more low-income women and their children. * Develop a comprehensive maternal and child health network to reduce both the infant mortality rate and the number of low birth-weight babies - because every child deserves a fighting chance to grow up healthy. * Fully fund the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program and other critical initiatives recommended by the National Commission on Children that save us several dollars for every one we spend. Revolutionize lifetime learning * Make good on the Bush Administrations broken promises by fully funding Head Start and other pre-school programs. * Through innovative parenting programs like the Home Instructional Program for Pre-school Youngsters (HIPPY), help disadvantaged parents work with their children to build an ethic of learning at home that benefits both parent and child. * Dramatically improve K-12 education by establishing tough standards and a national examination system in core subjects, leveling the playing field for disadvantaged students, and reducing class sizes. * Give every parent the right to choose the public school his or her child attends, as Governor Clinton has done in Arkansas. * Create a Youth Opportunity Corps to give teenagers who drop out of school a second chance. Community youth centers will match teenagers with adults who care about them, and will give kids a chance to develop self-discipline and skills. * Develop a national apprenticeship system to give kids who don't want to go to college the skills they need to find high-wage jobs. * Give every American the opportunity to borrow money for college: retain the Pell grant program but scrap the existing college loan program and establish a National Service Trust Fund. Those who borrow from the fund will be able to repay the balance either as a small percentage of their earnings over time, or through community service as teachers, law enforcement officers, health care workers or peer counselors helping kids stay off drugs and in school. Make our homes, schools, and streets safer for children * Crack down on violence against women and children. Sign the Violence Against Women Act, which would provide tougher enforcement and stiffer penalties to deter domestic violence. * Launch a Safe Schools Initiative so kids can focus on learning again: make schools eligible for federal assistance to pay for metal detectors and security personnel if they need them; encourage states to grant school officials greater authority to conduct locker and automobile searches; and fund mentoring and outreach programs so kids in trouble with crime, drugs or gangs will have someone to turn to. * Establish school-based clinics and drug education programs to prevent drug abuse, and to help kids who get hooked on drugs. * Promote AIDS education in American schools. * Set standards for crime emergency areas by making communities hit hardest by crime eligible for federal matching funds to assist in the war on crime when they adopt proven anti-crime measures. * Fight crime by putting 100,000 new police officers on the streets; create a National Police Corps and offer unemployed veterans and active military personnel a chance to become law enforcement officers here at home. * Expand community policing, fund more drug treatment, and establish community boot camps to discipline first-time non-violent offenders. * Sign the Brady Bill, which will create a waiting period for the purchase of handguns and allow authorities to conduct background checks before guns fall into the wrong hands. * Work to ban assault rifles that have no legitimate hunting purpose. Support pro-family and pro-children policies * Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to guarantee a working wage so that no American who works full-time is forced to raise their children in poverty. * Lower the tax burden on middle class Americans by asking the very wealthy to pay their fair share; give middle class taxpayers a choice between a children's tax credit or a significant reduction in their income tax rate. Virtually every industrialized nation recognizes the importance of strong families in its tax code; we should, too. * Sign into law the Family and Medical Leave Act, which George Bush vetoed in 1990, so that no worker is forced to choose between maintaining his or her job and caring for a newborn child or sick family member. * Create a child care network as complete as the public school network, tailored to the needs of working families; establish more rigorous standards for licensing child care facilities and implement improved methods for enforcing them. * Promote tough child support legislation and develop stricter, more effective methods to enforce it: crack down on deadbeat parents by reporting them to credit agencies, so they cant borrow money for themselves when they're not taking care of their children; use the Internal Revenue Service to collect child support; start a national deadbeat databank; and make it a felony to cross state lines to avoid paying support. Health care * Governor Clinton established 21 school-based health clinics serving thousands of Arkansas children who wouldn't otherwise have access to health care. State health personnel use the clinics to fight problems that can devastate young lives. * Introduced programs to provide low-income women with access to comprehensive maternity and infant care. Arkansas infant mortality rate has dropped from 16.4 to 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births, one of the lowest for a Southern state. * Proposed and passed a Health Care Access Law, a program designed to provide universal health care coverage by the year 2000 for all children 16 and under, regardless of family income. * Senator Gore was a principle sponsor of the Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and safety standards. * Authored legislation that led the FDA to ban the use of life-threatening sulfites on fresh fruits and vegetables. * Voted for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which President Bush vetoed. * Authored and helped to enact into law the Trauma Core Revitalization Act, which makes grants to hospital trauma centers incurring substantial uncompensated costs in providing trauma care in areas with high rates of crime related to drug trafficking. * Gore conducted hearings that led to the passage of the National Organ Transplant Act, which he also helped to write. The Act established a national network to match organ donors and recipients. * In 1992 Senator Gore sponsored the Family Reunion Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, which brought together 600 people including social workers, teachers, and psychologists to exchange ideas and develop solutions to the challenges facing our families and children. The conference resulted in the formation of the Tennessee Family Action Network. Protecting children * Governor Clinton created a Children's Trust Fund, financed by a $5 fee on marriage licenses, which grants funds for local child abuse and neglect prevention projects. * Established a Child Sexual Abuse Education Commission to train social workers, teachers, and others on the problems of child sexual abuse. * Cracked down on deadbeat parents by reporting those who owe more than $1,000 in support to major credit agencies. * Senator Gore cosponsored the Child Welfare and Preventive Services Act, which establishes innovative child welfare and family support services that strengthen families, keep children out of foster care, promote the development of comprehensive substance abuse programs for pregnant women, and provide improved health care services for low-income children. Early childhood programs * Governor Clinton established the first state-wide Home Instructional Program for Pre-school Youngsters in 1986, which helps mothers teach their children to read. Arkansas is now the largest in the nation. * Launched the Arkansas Better Chance Program, which expands early childhood programs for at-risk children ages 3-5. * Raised standards for licensing child-care centers, hired more inspectors to enforce them, and established a fund to train child care workers. * Senator Gore voted for legislation to expand Head Start and bolster programs that help children into elementary school. * Fought to continue funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in order to continue Education * Governor Clinton created tough new standards for students, teachers and schools. * Provided matching funds to assist school districts in obtaining up-to-date scientific and technical equipment. * Demanded responsibility from students and parents. In Arkansas, students who drop out of school for no good reason lose the privilege of a drivers license, and parents are fined if they repeatedly fail to show up for parent-teacher conferences. * Permitted parents to choose the public schools their children attend as long as an acceptable racial balance is maintained. * Created the Arkansas Academic challenge scholarships to provide college scholarships to middle income and poor students who achieve good grades, score 19 on the ACT and stay off drugs. * Got real results: under Bill Clinton's leadership, Arkansas students' test scores, graduation rates, and college attendance rates increased dramatically. * Senator Gore voted for the Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act, which provides assistance to school based management efforts, increases parental involvement, improves teacher training and aids dropout prevention. * Voted for legislation to expand funding for Chapter 1 and 2 programs for disadvantaged children. * Voted to expand the Pell Grant program, increasing the number of grants and lowering income eligibility standards.