PBS高端访谈:学前教育的扩张遭遇激烈争论

 　　GWEN IFILL: Tens of thousands of parents in New York City will get a chance to send their children this fall to free full-time¹ pre-kindergarten classes, thanks to a new $300 million state program announced jointly² by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and city Mayor Bill de Blasio.

　　Educators hoping to expand pre-K on the national level are keeping an eye on cost and quality.

　　Special correspondent John Tulenko of Learning Matters has our report.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The problem is, we’re still not reaching enough kids, and we’re not reaching them in time. And that has to change.

　　JOHN TULENKO: The president is talking about preschool. This year, federal spending on early childhood education, which had been around $7.5 billion, will increase by a billion more.

　　Preschool is also getting attention from big city mayors, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

　　MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D, N.Y.: We must achieve the tax plan I put forward for full-day pre-K for every child in this city.

　　(APPLAUSE)

　　JOHN TULENKO: Florida, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Georgia already offer preschool to everyone. And 30 governors are proposing to expand it in their states, so children get a boost.

　　STEVE BARNETT, Director, National Institute for Early Education Research: Kids develop better cognitive³ skills, and success breeds success.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Rutgers University Professor Steve Barnett has devoted⁴ his career to better understanding how preschool affects outcomes for children.

　　STEVE BARNETT: It’s not just about learning colors and shapes and letters and numbers. Those things are important, but it’s also learning about how to control my own emotions, how to get along with other people. And so you put all of that together, and those things can put kids on a much more successful life path than if they don’t have them.

　　JOHN TULENKO: But, as Barnett’s research has shown, all that depends on having quality preschool programs. And he’s concerned that in some states today, the most politicians are doing is talking up a good game.

　　STEVE BARNETT: Most 4-year-olds who go to preschool programs go to programs that aren’t good. I think it’s a kind of bait and switch. It’s easy to make a commitment and not put enough money behind it. And it’s very difficult for parents to know that their state is not actually doing what they say they are.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Barnett worries in particular about California, Texas, and Florida.

　　STEVE BARNETT: The standards are so low, it’s questionable⁵ whether you should call it preschool education.

　　JOHN TULENKO: What does it look like?

　　STEVE BARNETT: You have a teacher who has — with no qualifications requirements, no limits on class sizes or ratio. States pay $2,300 a child, which is less than a quarter what kindergarten costs. It’s hard to believe it’s more than baby-sitting.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Ten states don’t even offer that: They have no public preschool. Among the others, 27 make it free only to families near or below the poverty line.

　　That helps explain why public preschools enroll⁶ only about a quarter of the nation’s eight million 3- and 4-year-olds. A few of those lucky children go to this preschool center in Perth Amboy, New Jersey⁷. Here, preschool is free, regardless of income.

　　Jeri Mast is the director.

　　DR. JERI MAST, Director, Edmund Hmieleski Early Childhood Center: We are teaching everything, the language, the literacy, the math, so that they’re more academically prepared for school.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Children can be here from 7:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night, getting more than academics.

　　DR. JERI MAST: Most children in our schools will get two-thirds of their food intake⁸ here at school. We can get kids coats and hats, mittens⁹ when it’s cold. We’re a full-service operation.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Classes here are small: one fully¹⁰ licensed¹¹ teacher and an aide for every 15 children. The center has a well-equipped playroom, technology and other extras.

　　All this costs about $13,000 per child per year, money Perth Amboy gets from a class-action lawsuit¹² it filed several years ago against the state of New Jersey. The rest of the country will have to find other ways to pay for preschool.

　　Where will the money come from for that?

　　STEVE BARNETT: It comes out of general revenues. We have been talking about it being expensive. It’s not a lot of money. The federal tax break that allows hedge fund managers to pay 15 percent income tax basically costs $83 billion a year. We could provide preschool to all our kids for far less money than that.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Last year, President Obama asked for $75 billion, funded by a proposed federal tax on cigarettes, to roughly double the number of children in preschool over the next decade. Lawmakers rejected it.

　　REP. JOHN KLINE, R, Minn.: We shouldn’t just be grabbing new ideas and creating new programs and adding to the debt.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Opponents included Republican Congressman¹³ John Kline, who did vote yes on the far more modest $1 billion increase in federal funds for preschool, as part of the budget that passed in January.

　　REP. JOHN KLINE: We’d like to see pre-K programs that work, because there is growing evidence, and it’s recognized on both sides of the aisle¹⁴, that early childhood learning is worthwhile, but let’s just don’t grab a new program and start trying to fund it.

　　JOHN TULENKO: But preschool might actually save taxpayers¹⁵ money, according to Steve Barnett.

　　STEVE BARNETT: Kids who went to preschool, they need far less special education. They’re far less likely to fail and repeat. You add all that up, and that’s going to outweigh¹⁶ the cost of the preschool program by itself.

　　JOHN TULENKO: And, he says, that’s just the start of the savings¹⁷.

　　STEVE BARNETT: The big part comes later on, because kids are less involved in crime, delinquency. They’re productive in the work force. They have lower health care costs. Those are the big long-term savings.

　　JOHN TULENKO: But critics argue the long-term gains rest on thin evidence, and short-term gains have come under scrutiny¹⁸ too.

　　REP. JOHN KLINE: Kids are really not ready for school, and you know there’s a famous study that says, by the time you get to the third grade, it doesn’t matter anyway.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Kline is referring to a 2012 study of Head Start, the federal preschool program. It found children’s early gains in language and reading had virtually disappeared by the end of third grade.

　　The reason for that, the authors say, is that many children who didn’t go to preschool quickly catch up. But it’s also possible the children who did go are slowing down. With overcrowded classes and fewer support staff, the lingering effects of the recession, instructional quality in many elementary schools has suffered.

　　STEVE BARNETT: It’s like a relay race. You can’t say, I ran a really good first lap, so now I can walk the next one. All right. You’re going to lose the race if you do that. Well, preschool is the same way. It’s a really good first lap. You have to keep running hard.

　　JOHN TULENKO: Barnett hopes the improving economy and bipartisan support in many places will keep up the momentum¹⁹ and public moneys for high-quality preschool and beyond.

1 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

2 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

3 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

6 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。

7 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

8 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

9 mittens   

不分指手套

参考例句：

• Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face. 棉的连指手套使婴儿不会抓伤自己的脸。
• I'd fisted my hands inside their mittens to keep the fingers warm. 我在手套中握拳头来保暖手指。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？

12 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。

13 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

14 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

15 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

16 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

17 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

18 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

19 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。