ITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Al Gore courted veterans yesterday with $1.2 billion in new education money for them, their families, and their survivors.
''Those who fight for our security should never have to fight for the education they need to succeed,'' Gore told 150 veterans at VFW Post 4548 in the state capital.
If Congress agrees, monthly payments to veterans and families would increase next year by 25 percent, from $536 to $670. Gore said that would be the largest increase in their education funding since the program began 16 years ago as part of the GI Bill.
Benefits also would be indexed to inflation and veterans could use the money for other types of learning during school breaks.
Gore said no new money would be needed to pay for the increased benefits since they would be covered by money available from the Veterans Administration.
The campaign of George W. Bush, Gore's presidential rival, criticized the proposal as ''a day late'' and ''millions of dollars short'' and added that a former Clinton-Gore veterans' affairs secretary had criticized the administration's budget cuts for veterans.
''America's veterans will clearly see through Al Gore's election-year conversion as an advocate for veterans when they examine budget cuts in veterans' benefits over the last eight years,'' a Bush campaign spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said in a statement.
Military service is often a sensitive issue in presidential races. President Clinton's lack of military service nearly damaged his bid for the White House in 1992.
Veterans' issues came to the fore in the Republican primary campaign, as Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Navy pilot imprisoned for more than five years by the Vietnamese, garnered veterans' support.
Gore served in Vietnam as an Army journalist and likes to say he carried ''an M-16 and a pencil.'' Bush, whose father was a member of Congress and later was elected president, served in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam.
Gore also touted administration efforts to improve health care and military recruitment.
''We don't give our veterans anything. You have earned what you get with blood, sweat, and tears,'' Gore said.
