CNN 2010-12-11

9:30 on the East Coast; 6:30 out west. And this just in, new video from outside a London courthouse where the founder¹ of the WikiLeaks website Julian Assange is in court. He was arrested five hours ago on a Swedish warrant alleging² sex crimes but has not been charged. His attorneys say he will fight extradition³ to Sweden.

Elizabeth Edwards' health takes a turn for the worse. The wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has stopped treatment for cancer and may have only weeks to live.

The sun is shining across Florida, but the temperature is reading 15 degrees below normal for this time of year. Florida's dealing⁴ with some of the coldest temps in 10 years. Citrus and vegetable growers are trying to protect their crops by covering them or spraying water on them to freeze. Temperatures across the mid-Atlantic and southeast states are running 15 to 20 degrees below normal.

Well, Michelle Rhee; she's one of the most controversial figures in public education today. She made a name for herself as a revolutionary overhauling⁵ the Washington, D.C. school system. She closed schools, fired teachers, cleaned house and she resigned. Love her or hate her, Rhee attracts attention. Oprah even dedicated⁶ an entire hour to her.

She graces the covers of magazines like Newsweek and Time and now she's catapulted herself into the center of the national education debate launching education advocacy group called Students First. She talked about her goals this morning to our John Roberts.

That brings us to our AM Extra.

So, John, this woman is definitely a lightning rod and she's been labeled a revolutionary. But how is she actually changing the game?

Well, yes. She is a lightning rod and some people have called her, as you pointed⁷ out, a revolutionary. But sometimes it takes a revolution to get something done. With this new Students First, she's got a goal on her first year of attracting a million members and a billion dollars of funding for three major reforms.

First is, to put a quality teacher in every classroom, and Kyra, with your parents are teachers, university professors, you know how important a quality teacher is. The second thing is to spend money where it counts, trim down the bureaucracy and put the dollars on the road where they can actually do something. And then the third goal is to invest parents in their children's education because so many parents kind of send their kids off to school and when they get back in the afternoon don't even ask how their day was.

She believes, like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, that education reform is the civil rights issue of our generation. And like the civil rights issue, which didn't negotiate everything, she believes that there is room for confrontation⁸ here in education reform and some of that confrontation, as she told me this morning, will be aimed at the teachers’ unions.

Here's what she said.

I'm prepared to take on a high level of confrontation and conflict in favor of our kids. Because, look, I'm sure the teachers' union doesn't want a lot of confrontation because they don't want to be confronted with the facts, which are that often times the policies that they are pushing, while they are fine for the adults, are actually not good for kids.

So it raises the question, are you preparing to go to war with the teachers' union?

You know what? I don't know. This is not about a war against the teachers' union. For me, it's about fighting for kids.

And John, you also talked about how our universities rank among the rest of the world and we've got big problems in our public school system among developed countries. I mean, we rank mid-20s when it comes to science, math, literature.

How'd she answer to that?

Yes, it's such a dichotomy. You know, the best universities in the world and the public school system in many areas not so good.

She said that we're really headed for a fall if we don't do something and do it quickly. And one of the things she points to and many other education experts do, is that in the next decade there will be 123 million skilled jobs available in this country and only 50 million people who come out of our education system who are qualified⁹ to fill them. So that means we'll going to need to bring in people either from the outside or those jobs you are going to go wanting, which would not be good for the future of America.

Well, something's got to happen. John, thanks.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

3 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 overhauling   

n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• I had no chance of overhauling him. 我没有赶上他的可能。 来自辞典例句
• Some sites need little alterations but some need total overhauling. 有些网站需要做出细微修改，而有些网站就需要整体改版。 来自互联网

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

8 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

9 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。