奥巴马2012年8月18日电台演讲 （教育话题）

Teachers matter. Most work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own

pocket for school supplies – just to make a difference. They give everything for our kids – and

in return, we should invest in them. But here’s the thing: this year, several thousand fewer

educators will be going back to school.

Since 2009, we’ve lost more than 300,000 education jobs, in part, because of budget cuts at the state and local level.

教师问题必须关注。他们中的大多数不知疲倦的工作，收入不高，有时还要自掏腰包购买教具—就是未来有所改变。他们为了孩子们呕心沥血—作为回报，我们应该投资于他们。

但是现在的情况是：今年，比计划少几千名教育工作者将重返学校。自2009年以来，我们损失了300,000个教育工作各位，部分地因为州和地方教育预算削减。

Think about what that means for our country. At a time when the rest of the world is racing

to out-educate America; these cuts force our kids into crowded classrooms, cancel programs

for preschoolers and kindergarteners, and shorten the school week and the school year.

想一想这对我们国家意味着什么。在这个世界上其它国家都竞相在教育上超越美国的时候，这些削减迫使我们的孩子们拥挤在教室里，取消幼儿园和学前教育，减少周学时和学年长度。

That’s the opposite of what we should be doing as a country. States should be making education a priority in their budgets, even in tough fiscal times. And Congress should be willing to help out – because this affects all of us.

这与我们作为一个国家要做的恰恰相反。各州都应该把教育放在预算的首位，尽管现在财政困难。国会应该帮助教育摆脱困境—因为这影响我们所有人。

That’s why part of the jobs bill that I sent to Congress last September included support for

states to prevent further layoffs and to rehire teachers who’d lost their jobs. But here we are –

a year later with tens of thousands more educators laid off – and Congress still hasn’t done

anything about it.

这就是为什么我在去年九月提交给国会的就业议案中的一部分内容包括了支持各州防止更多裁员和从新雇佣失业教师。但是现在的局面是—一年以后成千上万的教师失业了—国会至今没有任何作为。