Vice president Al Gore campaigned Saturday for the president's $1,500 tax credit proposal aimed at making it easier for Americans to pay for college education and job training.
Stumping with his daughter, Karenna, Gore cautioned about 60 students, parents, teachers and business people: "In the future, what you earn will depend on what you learn."It was Gore's first trip to Macon and Savannah since becoming vice president. "Georgia is a crucial state," Gore said of the state that gave its 13 electoral votes to the Clinton-Gore team in 1992.
Gore said youthful unemployment can breed even further joblessness.
If young students see older ones unable to get a job out of school, they lose faith in the education system, Gore said, creating "a culture of hopelessness and despair."
But Gore said hopelessness can be turned around by businesses and schools working together to create courses that give students skills employers want.
Of the president's education track record, Gore said "We're proud of our past" but added; "We've got much more to do." He echoed the president's goal of making it easier for every American to go to college.
Gore visited the Macon Technical Institute, a two-year vocational school that provides courses from cosmetology to computer programming. The school was created in 1990 after McDonnell Douglas' Macon plant had to temporarily close because of a dearth of well-trained workers.
President Clinton's education plan would give $1,500 tax credits a year for two years of skill training after high school.