VOA标准英语2012--Obama Seeks to Contain College Costs

Obama Seeks to Contain College Costs

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.
The president said Friday that his administration has helped to make higher education more affordable¹ 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.
“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.”
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 jack² up tuition every single year. If you cannot stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers³ each year will go down," he said. "We should push colleges to do better.”
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.
“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.
He suggested another competition to encourage innovations to increase productivity on college campuses.
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.
Much of Obama’s plan faces a difficult future in Congress, which must approve almost all of it.
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.
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.
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 disapprove⁴. It is the first poll in six months that shows more people approving than disapproving⁵.
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.

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 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。

4 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。

5 disapproving   

adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Mother gave me a disapproving look. 母亲的眼神告诉我她是不赞成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her father threw a disapproving glance at her. 她父亲不满地瞥了她一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》