ETERBOROUGH, N.H. - Bill Bradley yesterday proposed a mix of major and modest programs aimed at work-stressed baby boomer parents, promising billions of federal dollars for everything from child care to community colleges.
But the Democratic presidential candidate, who has castigated his opponent Al Gore for making only incremental proposals, matched one of the vice president's initiatives, a plan to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act for such nonemergency purposes as parent-teacher meetings. Gore spoke about that idea as recently as this week.
Building on last week's introduction of a $65 billion-a-year health care plan, Bradley expanded his promise of federal help to families. The former New Jersey senator proposed a $2 billion annual child-care subsidy to the states, a $1.2 billion stipend for senior citizens who serve as volunteers, and a $400 million annual investment in community colleges. Bradley said the money would come from the budget surplus.
''The virtuous circle for national prosperity can be a vicious circle for parents,'' Bradley said in an address to a packed gymnasium at Contoocook Valley High School, nestled amid a mountain setting made famous in the Thornton Wilder play ''Our Town.''
While Bradley's aides provided many details about what they considered to be the impact of Bradley's programs, the overarching message was that Bradley was trying to form a bond with harried parents, an update of President Clinton's comment ''I feel your pain.'' Bradley said he empathized with families that not only are trying to make ends meet but also are trying to make enough time in the day for a fulfilling life.
''We are economically healthy, but are we socially healthy?'' Bradley asked. ''Are we spiritually healthy?''
Recalling how he used to have dinner with his parents at a set time while growing up in Crystal City, Mo., Bradley bemoaned that ''the new global economy doesn't care about the 6:30 dinner hour.''
The design of Bradley's programs said as much about the candidate as the dollar amounts attached to them. For example, instead of proposing an increase in the popular child-care tax credit, Bradley suggested that $2 billion a year should be given to states, which would work with local businesses to decide how to use the money. The states would have to meet certain standards to improve the quality of child care.
A Bradley aide estimated that the federal government already provides nearly $10 billion per year for the Head Start preschool program, low-income subsidies, and the tax credit. But Bradley said that is not enough.
''The plain truth is that child care isn't very good in America,'' Bradley said. ''It's child care, yeah, but do they care for your child? We're not always so sure.''
He said the current ''hodgepodge'' of child care should be converted to a federal-state partnership that would monitor quality.
Bradley has blasted Gore for proposing incremental improvements, but Bradley's other programs seemed more modest.
For example, Bradley proposed an expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Bradley said the law, which gives parents unpaid medical leave, should be expanded to cover more than 10 million employees of companies with 25 or more employees, up from the current coverage of companies with 50 or more workers. Bradley also suggested that parents be allowed to take 24 hours of leave for nonemergency purposes, such as a teacher-parent meeting, similar to an idea proposed by the Clinton-Gore administration.
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said, ''Bill Bradley says his campaign is about big ideas, but what he's failed to tell people is that his big ideas are Al Gore's ideas.''
Bradley's proposal for a ''Senior Corps'' of volunteers sounded similar to the Clinton administration's AmeriCorps and the longstanding VISTA program. Bradley said senior citizens would be given a tax-free stipend of up to $200 per month to enable them to teach young people in afternoon care centers. He said the program initially would cost $200 million a year and eventually would cost $1.2 billion.
Another program, grandly called ''Lifelong Learning Communities,'' would provide $400 million a year to community colleges in partnership with local businesses, which would agree to provide jobs to qualified graduates.
Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, one of the nation's best-known advocates for better child care, was among those listed by the Bradley campaign as supporting the programs announced yesterday. Reached by telephone, the professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School said he ''loved'' what Bradley was proposing for children's health, but that he wasn't endorsing any candidate.
''I like to play both sides,'' Brazelton said, adding that he had visited Tennessee with Al and Tipper Gore. He said he was waiting to learn more details about the Gore plan before comparing the two candidates on child health.
Bradley travels to Iowa today and is to unveil a $1.32 billion proposal that would provide cash payments to farmers when commodities prices drop, the Associated Press reported. The package also calls for sharply increasing the number of environmentally fragile acres taken out of production, increases in farm research programs, and a ''rigorous review'' of concentration of ownership in the meat industry.
