美国国家公共电台 NPR Dept. Of Education Fail: Teachers Lose Grants, Forced To Repay Thousands In Loans

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We have some exclusive reporting from NPR to bring you this morning. For years, the U.S. government has tried to entice¹ promising² college students to become teachers in schools that serve lots of low-income families. They've done this by giving them grants to help pay for college or for a master's degree. But NPR has obtained a previously³ unreleased government study that finds this program has been taking that grant money back from thousands of people, saddling them with debt, even though many teachers say they kept their end of the deal. NPR's Cory Turner and Chris Arnold co-reported this story, and we'll start with the voice of Chris.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE⁴: What's going on is what feels to many teachers like a bait and switch. These grants - they're called TEACH grants, up to $4,000 a year - this is supposed to be free money so long as you agree to do a couple of things.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Right. You have to promise to teach a subject, like math or science, for four years in a low-income school.

ARNOLD: It sounds like a great deal, but a lot of these people are getting those grants yanked away and changed into loans. Some of that's justified⁵ because they didn't end up becoming teachers.

TURNER: But in a new government study of the program, 1 in 3 people who lost their grant said they did meet those teaching requirements or were likely to, but their grants were still changed into loans.

ARNOLD: Loans that they now have to pay back. And it's a lot of teachers. The report estimates, based on a representative survey, that it's upwards⁶ of 12,000 teachers, and it could be a lot more.

MAGGIE WEBB: So without any notice, it was suddenly a loan, and interest was already accruing⁷ on it. So my $4,000 grant was now costing me $5,000, about.

ARNOLD: Maggie Webb is an eighth grade math teacher in Chelsea, Mass. We talked to her at her house, and she had her students' homework that she was grading out on the kitchen table.

WEBB: My day's over at 2:20, but I would say I spend an extra six hours or so working every day on either grading or lesson planning. So right now, I have a giant pile of papers.

TURNER: Webb got one of these TEACH grants, but after she started teaching, she ran into a paperwork problem. Teachers have to send in a form every year certifying⁹ that they're still meeting the grant's requirements.

ARNOLD: But the company that the Education Department hired to manage the grant - it's called FedLoan - Webb says they never sent her the form to fill out. Documents show that she reached out to the Department of Ed on time to ask for the form, and Webb insists that when she got it, she sent it in. But...

WEBB: They said they never received it. So I sent it again. And by that point, they said it was too late.

ARNOLD: Too late - that's when FedLoan converted her grant into a loan that she now has to pay back. To Maggie Webb, that just seemed ridiculous. She says she'd call up FedLoan, wait on hold for a long time and then tell them...

WEBB: I am working in a school, teaching math - a low-income school. So what was the problem?

TURNER: But that didn't seem to matter. The company wouldn't budge¹⁰.

WEBB: I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. I knew I had done it right. And it was just - it was hurtful that they would do that.

TURNER: And lots of teachers feel the same way - betrayed that the Education Department gave them this money, and in exchange, they made life decisions about where to live and what to teach. And now, for no good reason, the government's demanding the money back.

DAVID WEST: I couldn't believe it. I was flummoxed. I was floored. I was pretty upset by this.

ARNOLD: David West teaches high school in Lexington, S.C. He, too, got a TEACH grant, and similar thing - one year, he had a paperwork issue. He fixed¹¹ it and sent it back to this FedLoan company.

TURNER: But with him, too, West says, he was told it was now too late, and his grant had been converted to a loan. So like Maggie Webb, he got on the phone.

WEST: I'm like, what? You know, you go through, let me talk to your supervisor¹², blah, blah, blah. You could talk - and she said, you can talk to who you want, and there's also an appeals process, and you can try to appeal this if you want, but nobody ever wins. That's exactly what she said to me out of the gate.

TURNER: West exhausted¹³ his appeals. He even wrote a letter to his representative in Congress. Nothing's changed. Money he was given to become a teacher has now become a big debt for him.

ARNOLD: David West and Maggie Webb have now both signed on to a lawsuit¹⁴ against the Ed Department, and it's not the only lawsuit. In Massachusetts, the attorney general, Maura Healey, has been hearing from frustrated¹⁵ teachers there.

MAURA HEALEY: And for them to be actually actively¹⁶ sabotaged¹⁷ by a private company and our own U.S. Department of Education is just outrageous¹⁸.

ARNOLD: Healey is suing FedLoan over its handling of this TEACH grants and another student loan program. FedLoan declined an interview but said in the statement that it does not agree with the allegations in the AG's lawsuit. And it says that it, quote, "remains¹⁹ committed to resolving outstanding borrower issues."

TURNER: These issues have been going on for years, but Healey says the Trump²⁰ administration is putting up new roadblocks to stop states from holding these servicers accountable. Both the Education and Justice departments have instead argued that companies like FedLoan should be protected from state laws and lawsuits²¹.

ARNOLD: A few years ago, the Government Accountability Office investigated the TEACH Grant Program and raised some early red flags. That's one reason that this new government study was done. And it's now found that for those people who had their grants taken away and converted into loans, a third said they either didn't know that they had to certify⁸ and deal with this annual paperwork or they said they found the process challenging.

TURNER: Another big factor in all this, though, isn't in the report. The Ed Department pays these companies, like FedLoan, just a couple of bucks²² a month per borrower. Ben Miller²³ worked in the Ed Department under Obama and says...

BEN MILLER: If you don't get paid very much, and you don't feel like, hey, if I mess this up, the Department of Education's really going to breathe down my back, the incentive²⁴ to let things slide gets pretty high.

ARNOLD: In other words, loan servicers and the Ed Department could be doing a lot more to fix these problems. In a statement, the Education Department says the results of the study are concerning. And the department says it will review changes that it could make to benefit grant recipients²⁵.

TURNER: The department also says it reminds people repeatedly to fill out their paperwork. For her part, Maggie Webb, the math teacher, worries she has no choice now but to keep paying this loan that she says she shouldn't have to pay.

WEBB: It just made me angry because I was working in a low-income school, and I still am. And I don't know why I'm being punished for that. This is something to help teachers, and instead, they're just kind of targeting them.

ARNOLD: Experts say, too, that these TEACH grant deadlines and rules are often punishingly inflexible²⁶. If you're late on your credit card or your mortgage, you might pay 40 bucks, not 4,000 or 5,000. But that's what some teachers say is happening here, and they say they have no recourse. For NPR News, I'm Chris Arnold.

TURNER: And I'm Cory Turner.

(SOUNDBITE OF JEREMY KRINSLEY AND GREG HEFFERNAN'S "MATERIAL CULTURE 9.19.15, PT. 1")

1 entice   

v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿

参考例句：

• Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
• I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白，为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。

2 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。

3 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

4 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。

5 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

6 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

7 accruing   

v.增加( accrue的现在分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累

参考例句：

• economic benefits accruing to the country from tourism 旅游业为该国带来的经济效益
• The accruing on a security since the previous coupon date. 指证券自上次付息日以来所累积的利息。 来自互联网

8 certify   

vt.证明，证实；发证书(或执照)给

参考例句：

• I can certify to his good character.我可以证明他品德好。
• This swimming certificate is to certify that I can swim one hundred meters.这张游泳证是用以证明我可以游100米远。

9 certifying   

（尤指书面）证明( certify的现在分词 )； 发证书给…； 证明（某人）患有精神病； 颁发（或授予）专业合格证书

参考例句：

• Signed Commercial in quintuplicate, certifying merchandise to be of Chinese origin. 签署商业发票一式五份，证明产品的原产地为中国。
• Other documents certifying the truthfulness of the contents of the advertisements. （三）确认广告内容真实性的其他证明文件。

10 budge   

v.移动一点儿；改变立场

参考例句：

• We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来，但它连动都没动一下。
• She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。

11 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

12 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

13 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

14 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

15 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

17 sabotaged   

阴谋破坏（某事物）( sabotage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The main pipeline supplying water was sabotaged by rebels. 供水主管道被叛乱分子蓄意破坏了。
• They had no competition because competitors found their trucks burned and sabotaged. 他们之所以没有竞争对象，那是因为竞争对象老是发现自己的卡车遭火烧或被破坏。 来自教父部分

18 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

20 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。

21 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

22 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

24 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

25 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

26 inflexible   

adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的

参考例句：

• Charles was a man of settled habits and inflexible routine.查尔斯是一个恪守习惯、生活规律不容打乱的人。
• The new plastic is completely inflexible.这种新塑料是完全不可弯曲的。