Parents know that the last seven years have been long on promises and short on progress.
Gore was in Michigan to announce a proposal to expand savings programs giving parents incentives to set aside money for their children's college education. Aides said Gore would index programs to cover inflation and assure they would transfer from state to state. Bradley's proposal would allow parents to choose between the public schools their children attend and put in place a grading system for schools as well as adding money. He said his package would give schools incentives to improve, hold schools and teachers more accountable and give parents better information about the education their children are getting. Coupled with earlier Bradley proposals to double the number of slots in the Head Start program and provide incentives to find 600,000 new teachers, aides said Bradley is offering a far more aggressive package than Gore.