As Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore continues to campaign across the country, he is outlining his plans on topics ranging from the economy to health care. Gore is headlining his campaign with plans to make education accessible, an issue that can affect college students. Gore wants to raise standards and accountability for schools, teachers and students by investing back into the school systems. “It is really hard to say what will happen with education this election because it is so close right now,” said Chris Mackenzie, sophomore in political science. “Bush and Gore both want the middle-of-the-spectrum voters, so what they say right now might not be what they really want to do if they get elected.” His plan calls for $115 billion to be poured into education over the next 10 years to fund Head Start programs, raise teacher pay, recruit and train new teachers and rebuild schools. Gore’s plan would make up to $10,000 of higher education costs tax-deductible. Gore’s running mate, vice presidential candidate Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, is popular with voters across the board, said Aaron Fister, president and producer of ISU-9’s Politics Unlimited. “A lot of Republicans would vote for Lieberman,” said Fister, junior in management information systems. “A lot of people would consider voting for Lieberman that would not consider voting for Gore.” The economy has been the driving force for America’s prosperity, and Gore plans to use some of the national surplus to pay back the national debt so the United States may be debt-free by 2012, according to Gore’s Web site. Gore also would like to use the surplus to strengthen Social Security by using long-term interest savings to extend solvency. He is opposed to raising the retirement age or reducing benefits. “I think there will be some form of Social Security when the baby boomers reach [retirement] age,” said Robert Lowry, associate professor of political science. “But when students reach that age, Social Security may not be there. However, I do believe that there will be some sort of government retirement plan.” Gore plans to strengthen Medicare through what he calls a “lock box,” which would extend the life of Medicare until 2030 by devoting interest savings from debt reduction to Medicare solvency. One of the central issues in past debates has been gun control. Gore plans to increase the penalty for gun-related crimes and hire more prosecutors to address these crimes. Gore would like to make it mandatory for gun manufacturers and federally licensed sellers to report all gun sales to state authorities. Gore wants to limit the number of guns a person can purchase each month to one with a three-day waiting period, and he wants all new handguns to be equipped with child-safety locks. A sensitive issue among politicians is campaign reform. Gore wants to ban soft money, and he wants to strengthen the Federal Election Committee (FEC) and enact new lobbying reforms. “My view is that given the way the laws on campaign reform are currently being interpreted, any set of reforms that are passed will take about five to six years before lawyers figure a way around the reforms,” Lowry said. “They will not have a long-time answer to campaign reform.” For more information about Al Gore, visit his Web site.