美国国家公共电台 NPR 5 Education Stories To Watch In 2017

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

Public education could be in for some big changes this year. President-Elect Donald Trump¹ has brought new ideas, among them he's thrown his support behind charter schools. And to find out what all this could mean, we turned to NPR education correspondent Claudio Sanchez. Claudio has some predictions, including that we'll see a big fight over the billions of dollars that flow from the federal government to school districts across the country.

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ, BYLINE²: The Trump administration is likely to encourage more private, for-profit groups to compete with public schools for that money. And as Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation³ of Teachers, warns there will be a war over this money.

GREENE: A war. Now, the American Federation of Teachers is a big union, right. I mean...

SANCHEZ: They're one of the two big unions.

GREENE: So how are they - how are they responding here? Do they have plans on what to do?

SANCHEZ: Both the AFT and National Education Association, the other union, have vowed⁴ to oppose much of Trump's education agenda. Now, the biggest fights will unfold in Republican-led states where lawmakers have long argued that unions stand in the way of promising⁵ reforms because they're more interested in their dues-paying members than they are in children.

GREENE: OK, so the union's very angry. But, I mean, Claudio, we really can't talk about school choice without charter schools, right? They play a big role in that debate.

SANCHEZ: Oh, of course. It was really one of the cornerstones, if not the cornerstone, of his whole choice agenda. Now, the Trump administration's unconditional⁶ support for privately⁷ run, publicly funded charter schools is, I think, going to split the 25-year-old movement. Conservative sponsors of charters will side with Trump and his nominee⁸ for secretary of education. That's Betsy DeVos. She's a champion of charters in her home state of Michigan. Now, they're going to push for a major expansion of charter schools by shifting, not necessarily by increasing but by shifting more federal dollars to charters and by pressuring states to lift the cap on their growth. About 22 states have some kind of cap on the growth of charter schools. Bottom line is this, David - many conservatives in the movement view public education as a government monopoly and are intent on putting traditional public schools out of business through competition. This is their chance.

GREENE: Let's just talk briefly⁹ about college. We had so many people on our program who were just racking up so much debt and wondering whether a four-year college was worth it to them, if they should have put out all that money and just be mired¹⁰ in debt. Where does that go under Donald Trump?

SANCHEZ: I don't think it goes anywhere. I think the discussion about paying for college and the incredible amount of debt that some students incur¹¹, I think that's going to certainly be in the background, but I think that because he made so many promises about jobs growing, the manufacturing industry in this country, community colleges come into the picture here. I predict that community colleges will finally get the attention they've been clamoring for because for years they've been an afterthought, really, in higher education, even though they enroll¹² more than half of all students who go on to some kind of post-secondary education after high school.

So community colleges' mission to educate and retrain Americans from all walks of life will likely get a lot of support from the Trump administration because he promised that he was going to try and connect higher education more closely to the jobs that are being created and the training that's going to be needed.

GREENE: Which often happens in community colleges.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. Now, the question is will it be more lip service? Or there may be a good chance that this is really going to help community colleges get more recognition and support to fulfill¹³ their mission.

GREENE: OK, that's NPR senior education correspondent Claudio Sanchez. Thanks for your predictions as always.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF LITTLE PEOPLE'S "BASIQUE")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

4 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。

7 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

8 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

9 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

10 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 incur   

vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇

参考例句：

• Any costs that you incur will be reimbursed in full.你的所有花费都将全额付还。
• An enterprise has to incur certain costs and expenses in order to stay in business.一个企业为了维持营业,就不得不承担一定的费用和开支。

12 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

13 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。