VOA慢速英语2016 美国总统候选人提出学费解决方案

AS IT IS 2016-02-07 Politicians Suggest Ways to Reduce Tuition 美国总统候选人提出学费解决方案

U.S. presidential candidates are talking about the problem of high costs in higher education.

美国总统候选人们在谈论高校的高学费问题。

From 2002 until 2012, tuition increased by around 39 percent, on average, among public or government-funded universities. Among private universities, it rose around 16 percent on average.

2002到2012年，公立大学的学费增长了大约39%，私立大学的学费平均增长了16%。

The presidential candidates agree that the cost of education is a problem, but they disagree about what to do about it.

总统候选人们认为高学费是个问题，但在如何解决这个问题上他们存有分歧。

What do the Democrats 1 propose?

民主党人是怎么提议的呢？

The two main Democratic contenders are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. They both have plans for addressing the high cost of education.

民主党的两位主要候选人是希拉里·克林顿和伯尼·桑德斯，两人都有解决学费高昂的方案。

Hillary Clinton's plan is called the New College Compact.

希拉里·克林顿的计划叫做“新大学合约”。

The plan calls for giving grants to states. Grants are money given to states from the federal government. They help boost other financial aid to students, and help pay for living costs and tuition.

该方案呼吁给各州提供补助金，补助金是联邦政府拨给各州的资金，可以帮助推动给学生其他财政支持，帮助他们支付生活成本和学费。

Under Clinton's plan, community colleges would be tuition-free.

根据克林顿的方案，社会大学应该完全免费。

She also proposes reducing interest rates on student loans, giving support to private colleges, and basing loan repayment 2 on a graduate’s income.

她还提议减低学生贷款利率，给私立大学提供支持，根据毕业生收入制定还款计划。

Clinton says her plan will be paid for by limiting tax spending on wealthy taxpayers 3. She estimates the cost of the plan would be around $350 billion over 10 years.

克林顿说可以通过限制给高收入纳税者提供税收开支来筹资，她估计该计划10年内需大约3500亿美元的资金。

Bernie Sanders offers a plan with six steps. The first step is to make tuition free at public colleges and universities. The second step is to stop the federal government from profiting on the interest on student loans.

伯尼·桑德斯提出了六步走计划，第一步是实现公立学院和大学免费，第二步是联邦政府停止从学生贷款利息中获利。

Other steps include reducing interest rates students pay to borrow money and allowing students to refinance student loans. Sanders also favors need-based financial aid and work study programs.

其他步骤包括，降低学生贷款利率，允许学生对学生贷款进行再融资，桑德斯还支持根据需要提供金融支持和勤工俭学项目。

Sanders proposes paying for this plan by making 'Wall Street speculators' pay a tax. Sanders estimates the cost of the program to be around $75 billion a year.

桑德斯提出通过让“华尔街投机者”纳税来为该方案融资，桑德斯估计该方案每年需要大约750亿美元。

"We have a crisis in higher education today. Too many of our young people cannot afford a college education, and many of those who are leaving school are faced with crushing debt." 

“今天我们在高等教育方面遇到危机，太多的年轻人支付不起大学学费，很多毕业生面临沉重债务负担。”

What do the Republican candidates propose?

共和党候选人是如何提议的呢？

There are three front-runners in the Republican Party: Marco Rubio, Ted 4 Cruz, and Donald Trump 5.  

共和党有三名领先者：马克罗·鲁比奥、泰德·科鲁兹和唐纳德·特朗普。

Rubio is the only one who has officially shown a plan for dealing 6 with high costs.

鲁比奥是唯一一位正式提出解决高学费方案的候选人。

Rubio says he does not think tax money should support the current higher education system. He also says that universities raise fees too often, and too quickly.

鲁比奥说他认为纳税者的钱不应该用来支持目前的高等教育体系，他说大学涨学费频繁。

"The higher ed cartel pushes skyrocketing tuition and degrees that don't lead to jobs. Yesterday's leaders want to raise taxes and dump more money into this broken system." 

“高等教育卡特尔集团将学费和学位推到天价高，结果却找不到工作，昨天的领导人们希望增税，把更多钱补在这个糟糕的体系上。”

Rubio's plan proposes that students apply for “Student Investment Plans.” These plans would link students to private investors 7. In return for funding from investors, students would pay back part of their income to those investors for a set number of years.

鲁比奥的方案建议学生申请“学生投资计划”，该计划将学生与私人投资者联系起来，学生得到投资者提供的资金后，可以在若干年内把部分收入还给投资者。

Unlike loans, students would not have to pay back the full amount that they borrow from private investors. However, they would still have to pay a percentage of their income for the amount of time that they agreed to.

与贷款不同的是，学生无需偿还从私人投资者那里借到的全额资金，而是在协议时间内把自己一定比例的收入还给投资者。

Repayment based on income after graduation would become standard for student loans, says Rubio's website.

鲁比奥的网站上表示，根据毕业生收入制定的还款计划将成为学生贷款的标准。

Rubio says higher education in the U.S. needs to fit the economy. He recommends increasing access to career and vocational education, encouraging apprenticeships and on-the-job training, and easing access community and state colleges.

鲁比奥说美国的高等教育需要与经济相匹配，他建议推出更多职业培训，鼓励学徒制和在岗培训，让更多人能上社区大学和州立大学学习。

Rubio also says he wants to make statistics -- such as graduation rates, average student debt, and the likelihood of employment after graduating -- available to students and families.

鲁比奥还说他希望给学生和学生家人提供一些统计数据，比如毕业率、学生平均贷款量、毕业后的就业率等。

What about the candidates who don't have official plans?

那些没有提出正式方案的候选人呢？

Neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz has officially released plans for dealing with high costs in education. However, both men have spoken about dealing with high costs.

唐纳德·特朗普和泰德·科鲁兹都没有正式发布解决高学费问题的方案，但两人都谈到要解决高学费问题。

In an interview with the Hill, Donald Trump criticized the federal government for making a profit on student loans. He suggests that the government should not make money from student loans. In his words:

在接受《国会山报》的采访时，唐纳德·特朗普批评联邦政府从学生贷款中获利，他建议政府不要这么做，他是这么说的：

“That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off — I think it’s terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans.”

“这可能是政府唯一不应该挣钱的地方，学生贷款是能让政府盈利的地方之一，这一点很可怕。”

In 2012, Ted Cruz suggested that financial aid be given by states, not the federal government. In Cruz's words: 

2012年，泰德·科鲁兹建议财政援助应该由各州提供，而不是联邦政府，科鲁兹是这么说的：

“We should take the funding, give it to the states and put the states in the position to make the decisions how to have the greatest impact in their communities.”

“我们应该让各州提供资金，让各州自己决定如何给社区产生最大的影响。”

Which plans would have the greatest success?

哪个方案能取得最大的成功呢？

Some experts, such as N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor at Harvard, do not think that the plans of the presidential candidates will work well.

哈佛大学的N·格里高利·曼昆等专家认为总统候选人的这些方案都不会很有效。

The problem with Sanders' plan, writes Mankiw, is that it doesn't make college free. It forces taxpayers to pay for the college education of others.

曼昆撰文称，桑德斯的方案在于它未能让大学免费，而是迫使纳税人为别人支付学费。

Mankiw says that the government faces long-term budget problems. It must pay for Social Security and other government programs. He says it is not a good idea to add another new, costly 9 government program.

曼昆说政府面临长期的预算问题，必须为社会保障等政府项目买单，他说增加其他高成本的政府新项目不是个好主意。

Mankiw suggests that Rubio's plan suffers from a different problem: it is not clear that private investors would support students. Even if investors support students, they may only choose to support certain types of students.

曼昆称鲁比奥的方案会面临另一个不同的问题，并不清楚私人投资者会支持学生，即使有投资者愿意，他们可能也只会帮助一定类型的学生。

Beth Akers, an expert at the Brookings Institute, criticized Clinton's plan. Akers suggested that Clinton's plan wastes money.

布鲁克林研究所的专家贝斯·埃克斯批评了克林顿的方案，他说克林顿的方案是在浪费钱。

Clinton's plan calls for allowing students to refinance their loans. However, the households with the largest loan debts also tend to be wealthy households. This means, writes Akers, that Clinton's plan is helping 10 wealthy families more than poor families. In other words, Clinton's plan does not give relief to the borrowers who need it the most.

克林顿的方案要求允许学生对贷款进行再融资，然而，那些借款最多的家庭也往往是富裕家庭，这意味着克林顿的方案是在更多地帮助富有家庭而不是穷人，也就是说，克林顿的方案并没有帮助到最需要帮助的贷款者。

Akers also says that the $350 billion dollar cost of the program is probably low. She thinks Clinton's program would cost much more than that.

埃克斯说3500亿美元的资金对于克林顿的项目来说可能少了，她说该项目所需资金不止这么多。

The debate over what to do about the problem of expensive higher education is likely to continue for some time.

有关如何解决高学费问题的辩论可能还将继续一段时间。

Words in This Story

tuition – n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there

degree – n. an official document and title that is given to someone who has successfully completed a series of classes at a college or university

address – v. to deal with (a matter, issue, problem, etc.)

refinance – v. to get a new loan to pay (an older debt)

favor – v. to approve of or support (something)

speculator – n. a person who invests money in ways that could produce a large profit but that also involve a lot of risk

front-runner – n. the person or thing that is most likely to win a race or competition

income – n. money that is earned from work

vocational – adj. relating to the special skills or training that you need for a particular job or occupation

apprenticeships – n. a position as an apprentice 8 (an apprentice is a person who learns a job or skill by working for a fixed 11 period of time for someone who is very good at that job or skill)

on-the-job training – n. learned or done while working at a job