The National Education Association
Take a cybertour of America's public schools.
The Center for Literacy
The nation's largest community-based adult literacy organization.
Language and Literacy Project
A great jumping off point for language, education, or literacy in general.
AmeriCorps
An explanation of AmeriCorps with links to specific programs.
Brady Bill II
The full text of the Brady Bill II.
Posted September 12, 1996
Apart from the scandalous revelation that Presidential advisor Dick Morris' idea of room service includes a $200-an-hour prostitute, the Democrats' week in Chicago produced almost no news, and revealed virtually nothing of substance about the campaign home stretch to come.
Rather, it was the President's hokey "whistle stop" train tour, the "21st Century Express," that brought him westward from Virginia to accept his party's nomination in Chicago that was the forum for some old-fashioned campaign proposals.
The proposals are limited --"itty-bitty teeny-weeny little government programs," a Dole campaign official derisively referred to the package. And the price tag adds up to only $8.5 billion dollars, nothing compared to the $550 billion tax cut Dole has proposed in his economic plan, which would cut income tax rates by 15 percent. But the package Clinton unveiled beside the train tracks in towns like Kalamazoo were designed, like so many Clinton-Gore campaign themes, to appeal to a crucial block of moderate and independent voters, particularly suburban couples and parents. Here's a rundown of the new ideas that Clinton is pitching:
Proposal: A national literacy campaign aimed at making every third grader able to read. Grants would support community programs to show parents with low reading skills how to teach reading to their children. The mission of AmeriCorps, Clinton's national service program, would be expanded to include tutoring, and would provide about 30,000 tutors and coordinators to help teach reading at about 20,000 schools nationwide. More money would be added to make the Head Start program available to an additional one million preschoolers. (An earlier version, which would have sent tutors to each of the country's 50,000 elementary schools, was nixed by economic advisors who thought it too costly.) Ultimately, one million volunteer tutors would provide one-on-one instruction for kids in kindergarten through the third grade.
Why: Much of the campaign has been directed at parents, and key themes both at the convention and on the campaign trail have addressed the pressures of raising children.
Dole: Says these ideas show Clinton is a captive of the teachers' union. He calls for more fundamental reform, such as "school choice" and vouchers programs, and opposes expanding AmeriCorps. Other Republicans point out Clinton's proposal duplicates programs now funded by Congress.
Price Tag: $1.8 billion. (Originally $2.75 billion, but about $1 billion will be redirected from AmeriCorps' budget.)
Proposal: Speeding up the cleanup of toxic waste sites. The extra money is expected to allow the "Superfund" program's cleanup of twice as many sites per year, and to clean two-thirds of all Superfund sites by the year 2000. Also, $200 million would go toward a "right-to-know" program to publicly monitor pollutants by factories by posting pollution information on the Internet. Funding to keep the Great Lakes clean would also be boosted. Companies that clean and develop "brownfields" (abandoned inner-city manufacturing sites) could deduct the cleanup costs from their taxes. And new laws would allow the government to seize the assets of illegal polluters and use them to pay for cleanups.
Why: To strengthen the support of environmentally-conscious voters, and to reinforce Clinton's image as a defender of the environment against radical Republican programs.
Dole: Supported proposals in Congress to ease environmental regulations on corporations.
Price Tag: $1.9 billion.
Proposal: A job-creation program for welfare and food stamp recipients who lose their benefits under welfare reform. $3 billion in direct aid will be sent to cities for training and jobs programs and $500 million in tax credits will be given to companies who hire people who have been on welfare for at least 18 months. Companies would be granted a 50% tax credit on the first $10,000 of wages they pay to former recipients (a $5,000 tax break)
Why: Clinton has been trying to placate Democratic liberals who were infuriated over his signing of what they felt was a brutal Republican welfare bill.
Dole: Supported the welfare bill (as well as harsher versions vetoed by the president). He has not proposed additional programs to help implement reform.
Price Tag: $3.5 billion
Proposal: A capital-gains tax break to let middle-class homeowners keep a profit they make from the sale of their home. The first $500,000 in profits from a home sale would be spared from taxes.
Why: The importance of suburban middle-class couples as a voting bloc.
Dole: Would cut the capital gains tax for all transactions by 50%. The homeowners' break idea was originally proposed by Congressional Republicans.
Price Tag: $1.4 billion.
Proposal: A prohibition of people convicted of even misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns (Clinton has pitched this idea before. The government would also have wider government authority to ban armor-piercing, or "cop-killer," bullets. Handguns that had crossed state lines or affected interstate commerce (thus subject to federal law) would be banned within 1,000 feet of a school. A mandatory 10 year sentence would be imposed on drug dealers and gang members who fired a gun during a violent or serious drug felony.
Why: Clinton is flashing moderate credentials by emphasizing crime proposals. Also, the domestic abuser gun ban is considered a valuable way to woo the key bloc of women swing voters.
Dole: Has backed away from an earlier pledge to repeal the 1993 assault-weapons ban, and endorses instant background checks on all gun purchases.
Price Tag: None.
The price tag for these initiatives comes to $8.5 billion over six years. Clinton is quick to note that he has specifically outlined how he will pay for them, as opposed to Dole, who has left unspecified many of the spending cuts supposed to offset his tax cuts. How will Clinton pay? Mostly, the cost falls on big corporations (a "Robin Hood theme," one Chamber of Commerce spokesman calls it) by:
- Limiting the income multinational corporations could treat as tax-protected "foreign source" income: $5.3 billion raised.
- A new $225 per-flight fuel fee on corporate jet flights: $541 million.
- Auctioning part of the radio spectrum to telecommunications companies: $500 million.
- Ending a tax credit for some synthetic fuels: $475 million.
- Repealing a law that would have allowed health care providers to get opinions from the government, which would insulate them from later prosecution, on whether proposed business relationships constitute kickbacks: $470 million
- Increasing fees for corporate mergers: $420 million.
- Enacting a new $1 per check fee on government vendors who request payment via paper checks rather than electronic transfers: $70 million.