ALLAS - Significantly expanding his earlier proposals, Vice President Gore yesterday urged that Washington withhold funds from states that fail to improve student performance and to close the gaps between white and minority students.
To some observers, the new Gore plan marks the first time the vice president has released a policy that appears to respond to an initiative from Republican rival George W. Bush, who has stressed increasing accountability and standards in his own education plan.
But at the same time, the Gore plan sharpens the contrast between the contenders on how to measure student performance and how to deal with schools that perform poorly.
While Bush would rely mostly on state-designed tests to gauge student progress, Gore says states should be judged on the basis of a national exam. And while Bush says that low-income parents in failing schools should be given vouchers to help send their children to private schools, Gore is urging measures to allow children to transfer to other public schools.
At the same time, Gore, in his speech yesterday to the National Conference of Black Mayors, proposed that Washington increase to $500 million annually the money it provides for troubled public schools.
That idea underscores another key difference between the two: while Bush is proposing to increase federal education spending modestly in a few targeted areas (such as early literacy), Gore wants to pour at least $115 billion over the next decade into an array of education programs, from building new schools to making preschool available to almost all children.
''We cannot reform and revolutionize education without this kind of major national investment,'' Gore said. ''Those like Governor Bush, who pretend we can reform American education with private school vouchers, a bite-sized investment, and an occasional speech, are simply out of touch with the challenges facing our public schools.''
Bush aides dismissed the Gore plan as an imitation of the governor's proposals and said it was tougher in words than in consequences for poorly performing schools. ''After looking at the details, it appears it is long on rhetoric and short on any real accountability,'' said Dan Bartlett, a spokesman for the Bush campaign.
Gore's speech continues an intense competition between the two candidates for the high ground in the debate over improving America's schools. In essence, Bush argues that Washington can best encourage reform by shifting more authority to local districts while holding them accountable for results.
Like Clinton, Gore has argued for a broader Washington role: He has proposed a series of grant programs that would help states replicate innovations (such as reducing class sizes) that have sprouted in some places but not in all.
