President Barack Obama is calling for reforms in the way Americans pay for a college education. The president made his appeal Friday before an audience of students at the University of Michigan.
美国总统奥巴马呼吁美国人上大学的学费要进行改革。 奥巴马总统1月27日在美国的密西根大学对学生发表讲话时，阐述了相关看法。
President Obama told the students the rising cost of college is slowing efforts to strengthen America’s economic future. “Since most of you were born, tuition and fees have more than doubled. That forces students like you to take out more loans and rack up more debt,” he said.
奥巴马总统在密西根大学发表演讲时说，美国大学逐年升高的学费，减缓了美国经济向更加强劲的方向发展的步伐。他说：“你们大多数人出生以来，学费和各种杂费已经上涨了一倍以上。这就迫使像你们这样的学生负担起更多的贷款、背负的债务越来越多。”
The president said Friday that his administration has helped to make higher education more affordable by giving more federal money to students who need it. But he said rising tuition costs at the nation’s universities makes the program more difficult for even the government to afford.
奥巴马总统星期五表示，在他任内，白宫方面已经将更多的联邦资金给予那些有需要的学生，从而让更多的人能够有机会念大学。但是，他说，美国全国各地的大学学费上涨得如此之快、之高，让联邦政府都没办法继续出钱资助了。
“We cannot just keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition," Obama stated. "If tuition is going up faster than inflation, faster than even health care is going up, no matter how much we subsidize it, sooner or later, we are going to run out of money.”
奥巴马总统说：“学费飞快地上涨，我们没有办法一直补贴下去；假如大学学费比通货膨胀率上涨得还快、甚至比医疗照顾费用涨得还快的话，那么，不管联邦政府花多少钱补贴，我们的钱早晚是会花光的。”
Part of Obama’s plan is to withdraw or reduce federal funding from universities that fail to control their tuition costs. “We are putting colleges on notice: You cannot assume that you will just jack up tuition every single year. If you cannot stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down," he said. "We should push colleges to do better.”
奥巴马总统提出的方案之一是，对那些控制不了学费的大学，联邦政府将停止或者减少资助。他说：“我们要让那些大学知道：不能以为每可以年都一个劲儿地把学费往上提，假如你们不能控制学费上涨的话，那么，每年从纳税人那儿拿来的资助就会减少。我们必须要促使大学能做得更好。”
The president also said he wants to begin a competition to encourage states to better use money for higher education. The winning state would receive a $1 billion prize.
奥巴马总统还表示，希望美国的各个州之间就如何更好地利用高等教育方面的资金，展开竞赛；赢得竞赛的州将得到来自联邦政府的高达10亿美元的奖励。
“We are telling the states: If you can find new ways to bring down the costs of college and make it easier for more students to graduate, we will help you do it,” Obama said.
奥巴马总统说：“我们对各个州表示：假如你们能够找出新的办法，将大学学费降下来，让更多的学生能够完成学业，那么，我们作为联邦政府，将会尽力帮助你们。”
He suggested another competition to encourage innovations to increase productivity on college campuses.
奥巴马建议搞另外一个竞赛，来鼓励美国大学在校园内进行创新。
Friday’s speech concluded the president’s three-day, five-state tour in which he promoted the initiatives he discussed in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
奥巴马总统星期五在密西根大学发表的这个演讲是他自从星期二发表国情咨文、之后连续三天在全美各地五个州内发表巡回演讲的最后一站。
Much of Obama’s plan faces a difficult future in Congress, which must approve almost all of it.
奥巴马总统的计划，大部分都将面临艰难困境，因为国会必须要通过这些计划的几乎全部才能成功。
Some Republicans have warned that moving federal aid away from colleges will hurt students, and that the president’s education plan will reduce the autonomy of the higher education system.
一些共和党人警告说，将联邦政府给予各个大学的资助取消的话，将会不利于学生，他们还说，奥巴马总统的教育改革方案将降低高等教育部门的自主性。
The proposals the president made in Michigan were an appeal to young voters and working families, two groups that usually support Obama, in one of the states that could decide the November election.
奥巴马总统在密西根大学提出的方案是针对年青人和工薪阶层家庭的。这两个群体通常都是支持奥巴马的，而密西根州正是有可能决定今年11月份的总统大选鹿死谁手的一个州。
New poll numbers are encouraging for the president. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey shows that 48 percent of Americans think Obama is doing a good job, compared with 46 percent who disapprove. It is the first poll in six months that shows more people approving than disapproving.
最新的一些民调似乎对奥巴马总统很有利。美国全国广播公司和华尔街日报联合进行的民调显示，目前有48%的美国人都认为奥巴马做得不错，认为他做得不怎么样的，有46%。这是过去六个月以来，支持他的人多于不支持他的人的民调。
The survey says 37 percent expect the economy to improve in the next year, compared with 17 percent who think it will get worse - a jump of seven percentage points from last month and a reversal from October.
这项民调还显示，有37%的人都认为明年美国的经济将会有起色，而只有17%的人认为明年的经济前景会比现在更差。37%这个数字和上个月比起来，高出了七个百分点，和去年十月份的民调比起来，人们的看法更是有了一个一百八十度的大转弯。 |