美国国家公共电台 NPR Betsy DeVos Speech Greeted By Protesters She Calls 'Defenders Of The Status Quo'

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

President Trump¹'s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is going to be speaking to the annual meeting of the American Legislative² Exchange Council or ALEC in Denver today. And her appearance drew hundreds of protesters who marched yesterday from the State Capitol Building to the hotel that is hosting this event.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Resist. Resist. Resist.

GREENE: Resist they are saying. Now, for more on ALEC and why these protesters are yelling resist and are very upset, let's turn to Anya Kamenetz from the NPR Ed team. Anya, good morning.

ANYA KAMENETZ, BYLINE³: Hi, David.

GREENE: So could you start by just reminding us, what is ALEC?

KAMENETZ: So it's a group founded by conservative activists⁴ in 1973. And it brings together mostly Republican state lawmakers with corporate⁵ lobbyists and some free market conservatives. And all together, they write model bills. And these bills on all sorts of topics get adopted around the country often with very few changes.

GREENE: And this is something we see in legislative bodies around the country often, I mean, groups like this who do a lot of the work on policy and lobby to have the policy put in place. So what exactly is ALEC's education agenda?

KAMENETZ: So ALEC really is the granddaddy of this kind of way of producing legislation. And they wrote the original school voucher⁶ bill back in the 1980s, bringing public money to private schools. They've been major champions of charter schools, of home schooling⁷, of similar voucher models like education tax credits, tax credits scholarships. And they also have a sideline in promoting technology in schools. So their chief corporate sponsor in the education realm for many years has been K12 Inc., which is a online for-profit schools chain.

GREENE: So just listening to some of the things you're talking about there, I mean, vouchers⁸ and charter schools and tax credits, I mean, this - it sounds a lot like Betsy DeVos has talked about. And it sounds like what President Trump has talked about, I mean, when he said that she would be his choice to lead the Education Department.

KAMENETZ: Yes. And they're - that is no accident, David. The relationship between DeVos and ALEC goes back many, many years. Her organization that she chaired until she became secretary, the American Federation⁹ for Children, has supported ALEC financially. DeVos and her husband held stock in K12 Inc., which as I mentioned, was a corporate - is a longtime corporate sponsor of ALEC. And her father-in-law actually received an award from ALEC many years ago. So yes, there's a very, very strong relationship between the two.

GREENE: And is that strong relationship what protesters are angry about?

KAMENETZ: Well, you know, ALEC's drawn¹⁰ a variety of protests from many different types of groups. Teachers unions don't like them because they back policies that tend to weaken those unions such as performance pay over tenure¹¹. And then, of course, there are protesters that say that the whole process of having these private companies writing legislation, you know, very closely working in influencing state legislatures, that that's not the most democratic way to make policies or laws.

GREENE: So Betsy DeVos is no stranger to controversy¹² since she has come into this job. What do you expect to hear from her today?

KAMENETZ: You know, she's likely to talk, as she usually does, about the importance of school choice and even more so about state leadership. It's kind of an awkward moment for this because the Trump budget requests that we saw in February had a lot of policies or proposals for school vouchers and school choice on the federal level. And those were just kind of like zeroed out, X'd out by the House Republicans just last week. And so if there's going to be continued growth or expansion of school choice policies, it's probably going to happen on the state level. And ALEC is going to continue to be a big part of that.

GREENE: Speaking to NPR's Anya Kamenetz, who is part of the NPR Ed team. Anya, thanks a lot, we appreciate it.

KAMENETZ: Thank you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

6 voucher   

n.收据；传票；凭单，凭证

参考例句：

• The government should run a voucher system.政府应该施行凭证制度。
• Whenever cash is paid out,a voucher or receipt should be obtained.无论何时只要支付现金，就必须要有一张凭据或者收据。

7 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

8 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）

9 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

12 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。