***** Reformated. Please distribute. CLINTON/GORE ON EDUCATION Government fails when our schools fail. For four years we've heard a lot of talk about the Education President but we've seen little government action to invest in the collective talents of our people. It's time for a change. Millions of our children go to school unprepared to learn. The Republicans in Washington have promised but never delivered full funding for Head Start, a proven success that gives disadvantaged children the opportunity to get ahead. And while states move forward with innovative ideas to bring parents and children together, Washington fails to insist on responsibility from parents, teachers, students or from itself. Putting people first demands a revolution in lifetime learning because education today is more than the key to climbing the ladder of economic opportunity; it is an imperative for our nation. Bill Clinton and Al Gore will invest in our people at every stage of their lives. They will put people first by dramatically improving the way parents prepare their children for school, giving students the chance to train for jobs or pay for college, and providing workers with the training and retraining they need to compete and win in tomorrow's economy. Parents and children together * Inspire parents to take responsibility and empower them with the knowledge they need to help their children enter school ready to learn; help disadvantaged parents work with their children to build an ethic of learning at home that benefits both. * Fully fund programs that save us several dollars for every one spent -- Head Start, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program and other critical initiatives recommended by the National Commission on Children. Establishing tough standards * Work with educators, parents, business leaders and public officials to create a set of National Standards for what students should know. * Create a National Examination System to measure our students' and schools' progress in meeting the National Standards. * Achieve the 1989 Education Summit's "National Education Goals" by the year 2000: every child should begin school physically and mentally ready to learn; our high school graduation rate should rise from 71 percent to 90 percent, the current international standard; and students should be knowledgeable in math, science, language, history and geography when they graduate high school. Reforming our schools * Reduce the education gap between rich and poor students by increasing Chapter One funding for low-income students and giving schools greater flexibility to spend money in ways they think most effective, such as reducing class sizes in early grades. * Grant expanded decision-making powers at the school level -- empowering principals, teachers and parents with increased flexibility in educating our children. * Support better incentives to hire and keep good teachers, including alternative certification for those who want to take up teaching as a second career and differential pay to attract and retain educators in shortage areas like math and science, in urban schools, and in isolated or rural areas. * Help states develop public school choice programs like Arkansas' with protection from discrimination based on race, religion or income. * Promote bilingual education programs that teach substantive subjects in a child's native language while at the same time teaching English. Such efforts improve English fluency and recognize the value of a child's native language and culture. Making our schools safe again * Get drugs out of our schools: work with states and local communities to bring parents, educators, students, law enforcement personnel and community service workers together to provide comprehensive drug education, prevention, intervention and treatment programs. * Support a Safe Schools Initiative, which will provide funds for violence-ridden schools to hire security personnel and purchase metal detectors, and help cities and states use community policing to put more police officers on the streets in high-crime areas where schools are located. Alternative and continuing education programs * Help communities open centers that give dropouts a second chance through a Youth Opportunity Corps. Teenagers will be matched with adults who care about them and who will help them develop self-discipline and valuable skills. * Bring business, labor and education leaders together to develop a national apprenticeship program that offers non college-bound students valuable skills training, with the promise of good jobs when they graduate. * Maintain the Pell Grant program but scrap the existing student loan program and establish a National Service Trust Fund to guarantee every American who wants a college education the means to obtain one. Those who borrow from the fund will pay it back either as a small percentage of their income over time, or through community service as teachers, law enforcement officers, health care workers, or peer counselors helping kids stay off drugs an in school. * Invest in worker retraining programs that require employers to spend 1.5 percent of payroll for continuing education and training for all workers, not just executives. Preparing children for school * Governor Clinton established the first statewide Home Instructional Program for Pre-School Youngsters. HIPPY helps disadvantaged parents work with their children to build an ethic of learning at home that benefits both parent and child. * Introduced programs to provide low-income women with access to comprehensive maternity and infant care. Arkansas infant mortality rate has dropped almost 50% since 1978. * Initiated the Better Chance Program, which provides $5 million this fiscal year and $10 million the next for early childhood programs for at-risk children ages 3-5. * Senator Gore supported expanded full funding for Head Start and other successful pre-school programs. Reforming the schools * Clinton set higher standards for all Arkansas schools: they must provide intensive instruction in basic skills, offer a much broader range of advanced courses, strictly limit class size, and regularly test student performance. * Directed the state to issue a yearly report card on the schools. * Permitted parents to choose the public schools their children attend as long as an acceptable racial balance is maintained. * Provided a $4,000 average salary increase for Arkansas teachers in 1991-- the highest percentage increase in the nation that year. * 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. * Supported innovative programs for disadvantaged children, including expanded Chapter One and Two funding and the Star Schools program. Demanding responsibility * Governor Clinton required eighth graders to pass an exam to go to high school. * Required teachers to take a basic competency test to keep their jobs. * Revoked drivers licenses of students who drop out of school for no good reason. * Authorized fines for parents who refuse to attend a parent-teacher conference or allow their children to be chronically truant. * Senator Gore supported legislation to create National and Community Service programs. Getting results * Governor Clinton improved Arkansas math and reading test scores. Between 1981 and 1991, the average state percentile rank for 4th grade students rose from the 46th to the 61st percentile in reading and from the 44th to the 69th percentile in math. * Helped Arkansas achieve the highest high-school graduation rate in the region. * Increased the percentage of Arkansas seniors attending colleges by 34 percent from 1982 to 1991. Creating opportunity for all * With help from business, Governor Clinton created a Youth Apprenticeship program to motivate non college-bound students to stay in school and do well. * Created Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships to provide college scholarships to middle income and poor students who achieve 2.5 GPAs in high school taking the college core curriculum, score 19 on the ACT, and stay off drugs. * Established a college bond program allowing parents to buy short- or long-term college bonds, not taxed in Arkansas, to help finance their childrens college education. * Helped develop the Arkansas Industrial Training Program, which provides customized training to potential workers at new plants, expanding companies, or companies which are upgrading technologically. * Established the Governors Dislocated Worker Task Force, which identifies possible plant closings and layoffs, develops an appropriate plan, and offers retraining, placement, and other supportive services. * Senator Gore voted for Higher Education Act amendments to expand the Pell grant program. * Supported vocational education training efforts that go beyond high school. * Wrote the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 to more quickly move the new technologies developed under the High Performance Computing Act into schools, hospitals and businesses to improve education, expand health care and provide jobs. * Introduced and steered into law the High Performance Computing Act of 1990 to create a national high-speed computer network linking schools, research centers, and universities to the nation's most powerful computers, and making those computers accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to take advantage of their power and speed. It was the result of more than a dozen years of work by Gore.