WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON: Child Care

Background: With two incomes increasingly important to secure many family finances, the need for child care programs and related support efforts has become part of the political debate. Proponents contend that government should lead the way, while opponents cite budgetary constraints.

President Bush supports tax credits to make child care more affordable, an expanded Head Start program and $450 million in grants to states for child care services. The President vetoed legislation that would have established federal standards for child care centers and ensured parental leave for pregnancy and the care of sick children. The Administration has started a program aimed at immunizing all children against preventable diseases by age 2. The Administration says it would consider supporting pilot programs to use the Internal Revenue Service to enforce child-support payments.

Patrick J. Buchanan has not issued a plan or taken a position on child care.

Bill Clinton supports full funding of Head Start preschools and efforts to lower infant mortality through expanded maternal health services, to reduce teen-age pregnancy through sex-education programs, to increase preschool programs for poor children and to increase enforcement of child-support payments by reporting delinquent parents who owe more than $1,000 to a major credit agency in the state. He also supports parental-leave legislation.

Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. favors full funding of Head Start preschools and emphasizes the need for a national health care program to reduce infant mortality rates and improve child-immunization programs. He also supports additional funding for child care centers, stronger enforcement of child-support payments and parental-leave legislation.