"We need policies that value real families - that let parents balance work and families, and make our schools, hospitals, and communities more friendly to families' needs." - Al Gore

Nothing is more important to a society than raising children. Though no government can raise a child, it can provide tools parents need to raise children and build a strong nation - child by child, family by family, community by community. During this time of economic prosperity, America's working families are better off than they were eight years ago. Al Gore is committed to building on this progress - helping working families meet their responsibilities both at home and at work. That's why Al Gore has a comprehensive plan to help families meet the competing demands of today's society. As President, Gore will tap new and proven strategies to help parents balance their responsibilities at home and at work, improve access to affordable and quality child care and health care, keep our children and communities safe, expand economic opportunity, and promote responsible fatherhood.

HELPING FAMILIES BALANCE WORK AND HOME

• Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act: Al Gore proposes to build on the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act, enabling parents to participate in school activities or care for a sick child. He would expand the law to include businesses with more than 25 employees and give 24 hours of additional time off for emergencies or school needs.
• Providing More Quality After School Care: To help assure working parents that their children have somewhere safe to go after school, Al Gore has proposed expanding the 21st Century Learning Centers to provide after school programs and summer school to five million young people and help another five million working families through a new refundable After-School Tax Credit.
• Increasing Access to Child Care: Al Gore is proposing to make the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit refundable for the first time, so that families with no tax liability can receive up to $2,400 to help offset the cost of child-care. For other families, Al Gore proposes to increase the maximum level of the CDCTC from 30 percent to 50 percent. Al Gore also supports parents who stay at home with their children by allowing them to claim up to $500 under the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for child care expenses.
• Improving the Quality of Child Care: Al Gore proposes transforming the child care system by providing "Ready to Learn" funds to states that improve standards, accountability, and teacher and staffing quality to assure that child care centers and family child care homes prepare kids to learn and succeed in school. He is calling for a comprehensive "Ready to Read" fund for states and communities to launch a new reading initiative in child care programs.
• Promoting Universal Preschool: Al Gore is challenging every state to provide universal access to pre-school and expand the Head Start program, which provides support to working families. As President, Gore will make incentive grants available to every state to provide enough funding to guarantee access to high quality pre-school for all 4 year olds and many 3 year olds. Al Gore supports expanding Head Start, which supports working families by helping parents, get involved in their children's education lives.

KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE

• Making Our Schools Safe: Al Gore believes that our schools must provide students a safe place to learn, teachers a safe place to work, and parents peace of mind. His plan includes hiring more drug counselors and violence prevention coordinators, reducing class size, investing in after-school programs, and creating second-chance schools.
• Protecting Children From Guns: Al Gore supports common-sense measures to protect children from guns including requiring child-safety locks, closing the gunshow loophole that allows youths to purchase guns from unlicensed dealers, raising the minimum age for guns from 18 to 21, and supporting zero-tolerance for guns in school.
• Preventing Youth Smoking and Drug Abuse: As President, Al Gore will continue to work to reduce teen smoking with a goal of reducing it by half by 2004. Gore will also fight the scourge of teenage drug use by expanding the national media campaign, supporting community-based efforts to prevent youth substance abuse, and step-up anti-drug enforcement and treatment options.
• Protecting Children From Destructive Influences: Al Gore will continue to promote initiatives and technology that enables parents to have information that helps them protect their children from destructive influences in entertainment and the Internet.
• Supporting Community Service: As President, Al Gore will support Americorps, which has helped more than 100,000 students earn money for college or skills training by serving their community. Gore will oppose efforts by Republicans in Congress to cut the budget or eliminate the program.

PROMOTING SAFE AND STABLE FAMILIES

Al Gore is committed to improving foster care and encouraging adoption from foster homes. As President, Gore will build on the successes of the Clinton-Gore Administration in preventing child abuse and neglect, providing safe and stable homes for vulnerable children, increasing the number of adoptions from children in foster care, and ensuring that youths aging out of foster care have the resources they need to become self-sufficient.

PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD

Al Gore believes that there are essential things every father should do - provide financial support, spend time with his children, and treat the mother of his children with respect. Al Gore has proposed a series of proposals to help strengthen families and promote responsible fatherhood, including state performance bonuses and employment programs to help low-income fathers and families find work and support their children, increasing the amount of child support that goes directly to families on welfare, Parental Responsibility Accounts to help children once their families leave welfare, and preventing domestic violence. In addition, to strengthening child support enforcement, Al Gore will encourage more fathers to acknowledge paternity, streamline the process for establishing child support orders, and promote "Don't leave home without it" - a program to deny credit cards for parents who are delinquent on child support payments. Al Gore is also proposing funds to increase and facilitate non-custodial parents' access and visitation with their children through strategies such as mediation and supervised visitation.

PROMOTING MARRIAGE AND TWO PARENT FAMILIES

Al Gore proposes grants for marriage preparation, mentoring and counseling; funds to increase and facilitate non-custodial parents' access and visitation with their children through strategies such as mediation, supervised visitation, and development of parenting plans while taking appropriate steps to prevent domestic violence; and marriage penalty relief by raising the standard deduction so that a married couple would get the same standard deduction as if they remained single.

MAKING WORK PAY

Al Gore is committed to making sure that anyone who can work, goes to work; and that those low-income working families who work and play by the rules get the support they need to be self-sufficient. As President, he will: expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for larger families and families with married, two-earner couples; fight to raise the minimum wage by $1 over the next two years; and, expand Individual Development Accounts to empower low-income families to save for a first home, post-secondary education, or to start a new business.

PROVIDING RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR WORKING FAMILIES

While some want to privatize Social Security and risk its guaranteed benefit, Al Gore has a common sense approach to use today's prosperity to save for the future and help assure Americans a secure retirement. He has also proposed Retirement Savings Plus to create tax-free savings accounts that will enable working Americans to build a retirement nest egg in addition to Social Security's guaranteed benefit.

INCREASING ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

Al Gore would expand eligibility under the Children Health's Insurance Program (CHIP) to assure every child has access to affordable coverage, and also take steps to eliminate cumbersome barriers to child enrollment in health insurance. For adults, Al Gore would expand CHIP's affordable health insurance to parents, provide affordable health care options for Americans aged 55 to 65 to buy into Medicare, improve long-term care, strengthen Medicare for the future through a "Medicare lock box" that Congress cannot raid, and provide a new Medicare prescription drug benefit. He also supports a strong Patients' Bill of Rights that would take decisions away from insurance companies and HMOS and give medical decisions back to patients and doctors, supports greater initiatives to fight diseases and would strengthen Medicaid.

SUPPORTING FAMILIES WITH LONG-TERM CARE NEEDS

Al Gore supports Americans caring for an aging or disabled loved one. He has proposed a $3,000 tax cut for those with long-term care needs and their caregivers, as well as a new national family caregiving initiative to support caregivers in their communities.

REINVENTING GOVERNMENT TO MAKE IT MORE FAMILY FRIENDLY

Al Gore will work to build on the progress that has been made in reinventing and reforming federal policy so it responds better to the needs of American families.

Source: Al Gore for President 2000 Web Site