The presidential candidate also visited Maine.

ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Announcing his $70 billion plan to boost early childhood education, Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark tried to educate himself Wednesday about what kinds of programs work best.

Clark pulled up a pint-sized chair to watch 3-year-olds sing “The Good Morning Song,” appraised art work by 4-year-olds and peppered parents and staff at the Rochester Child Care Center with questions about the facility.

But he offered few details of his plan, which calls for $20 billion over 10 years to expand Head Start and $50 billion to help states improve preschool programs. The goal is to provide universal preschool access to all 4-year-olds.

“Especially when you’re dealing with children where both parents are working, these early childhood years are absolutely critical in laying the foundations for the kind of learning we have to promote to make our public schools successful and make America successful,” Clark said.

Later in the day, Clark traveled to Portland, Maine, where he held a fund-raiser and his first campaign rally in the state. About 150 people attended the rally at Portland City Hall where the retired Army general criticized President Bush for his foreign and domestic policies.

He called America’s involvement in Iraq a “$150 billion mess” and said statistics showing gains in the U.S. economy are misleading. He said the numbers don’t tell the story of people being laid off from manufacturing plants or going without health insurance.

“The economy’s not about statistics. It’s about people,” Clark told the crowd. “It’s about jobs and health care in this country.”

He said his campaign strategy isn’t simply to criticize Bush, but to offer a different course for Americans.

“I’m not running to bash George Bush. I’m running to replace him,” Clark said.

While outlining his early education plan in New Hampshire, Clark said each state would decide for itself how to use the money, but those accepting the grants would be required to phase in “school readiness standards.” The specifics haven’t been worked out, but the standards would include letter and number skills as well as cognitive, motor, social and emotional development.

“I’m not going to get into the details because educational specialists have to sit down and look at this,” Clark said. “It’s a question of how do you put together a structure that encourages all of these preschools who are doing early childhood development to meet common standards and interface those standards with what they’re teaching where public schools begin.”

Clark said his appreciation for early childhood education stems from advocating the Head Start program on military bases. The $20 billion he proposes would increase enrollment in the program for needy children to 1 million and double enrollment in a similar program for younger children.

Clark also would require all lead Head Start teachers to have bachelor’s degrees and all teaching assistants to have associate credentials. But those mandates wouldn’t apply to other preschool programs, he said.

One of the workers Clark spoke with told him she had been attending evening college classes but stopped because she had little time for her own children. And she believes she’s learned just as much from working with children as she would reading books about their development.

“What you’re reminding me is there’s an awful lot to learn from experience,” Clark said. “My model is it’s always better to give people a chance to advance themselves through education, but there’s a real set of personal trade-offs.”

Several of Clark’s Democratic rivals have proposed early childhood education programs and expansion of Head Start.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has proposed spending $110 billion over 10 years to fully fund Head Start, double enrollment in Early Head Start, offer preschool to every 4-year old and provide child care for another 1.4 million children. He also has proposed a national expansion of Vermont’s “Success by Six” initiative, which connects parents with health care providers and social service agencies.

The program is credited with helping reduce child abuse and child sexual assaults in Vermont.

AP-ES-12-03-03 1437EST

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