Gore Calls for Programs to Help Working Families

NEW YORK —  Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday outlined proposals to help families balance the demands of the workplace with those of the home, while directing one of his most pointed criticisms at Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

On a day that saw both of the presidential candidates campaigning for their party’s nomination in New York and focusing on domestic policy issues, Gore attacked Bush, the Republican front-runner, as lax on gun control and faulted his support for school vouchers.

Speaking to about 600 people attending a “Women for Gore” luncheon fund-raiser, the vice president also tailored his address to the pressures facing working women.

“If you do not understand the fatigue of the American woman, you do not deserve to be president of the United States,” he said.

Declaring that American families are “overstretched and undersupported,” Gore called on employers to make changes in the workplace--including additional day care and flexible work schedules--to ease the challenges of “exhausted” women. He also pledged that, as president, he would “make available high-quality preschool for every child in every family.”

Gore offered few specifics, no price tags and no details on how he would pay for the programs and policy changes he advocated.

The vice president’s speech was intended to offer a role for government in helping to relieve the stress and problems facing many American families who he said work an average of 500 hours per year more than a generation ago. It also served to preempt an anticipated speech on the same topic later this week by former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, the other candidate for the Democratic nomination.

Meanwhile, as the two Democratic candidates compete for a possible key endorsement next week from the AFL-CIO, Gore won the backing Tuesday of the American Federation of Teachers, the smaller of the nation’s two national teachers unions.

“Al Gore has been for years a close friend of education and of children,” said Sandra Feldman, the union president, before the group announced its endorsement in Washington. Mentioning Gore’s support for federal programs that she said help poor and urban children, she added: “This is a very positive endorsement of Al Gore on the record, not an endorsement against anyone.”

The unstated reference was to school vouchers, which Bush supports, and in which Bradley had once expressed interest before opposing the idea in his presidential campaign.

Under such programs, parents can enroll their children in private or public schools beyond their local district while government vouchers are used to help reimburse the school.

“I’m against vouchers,” Gore said, seeking to distinguish himself from Bush, whom he mentioned by name and from Bradley, whom, in this case, he did not.

“I’m all for private schools and the role they play, but not with public funds” said Gore, who attended one of Washington’s most exclusive private schools as a teenager and who sent his four children to private schools.

Gore also criticized Bush for signing legislation that increased opportunities for Texans to carry concealed weapons. He also called for closing loopholes in gun control laws and supported proposals to require the use of locks on triggers.

Challenging Bush’s statement that recent mass shootings reflect a “wave of evil” sweeping the nation, Gore said, instead, that the nation faces “a wave of guns.”

Gore’s speech at the $125-a-person luncheon was his last stop on a four-state, four-day trip that has showcased what aides hope will be a more lively campaign style. Seeking to portray a more relaxed demeanor, the vice president, in dark blue shirt and gold tie, entered from the back of the hotel ballroom and slowly made his way to his podium, shaking hands all the way.

He said that as president, he would encourage employers to create “family friendly” workplaces, supporting tax incentives for those that provide on-site day care and the expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover all but the smallest businesses.

He said he would support “a tax code that works for working families,” by helping people care for aging parents, meet health care costs and help communities rebuild schools.