VOA慢速英语--波多黎各学生仍遭受飓风玛丽亚的影响

Puerto Rico Students Still Suffer Effects of Hurricane Maria

One year has passed since Hurricane Maria struck the United States territory of Puerto Rico.

But even before the storm hit, education officials had begun closing schools on Puerto Rico to save money.

Last year, the territory’s government sought legal protection from creditors¹ because it owed billions of dollars in debts that could not be paid.

In the weeks and months after Hurricane Maria, the number of students on the island dropped as conditions worsened. Thousands of Puerto Rican families fled to the U.S. mainland². Many students ended up attending schools in Florida or other states along the East Coast.

At the time, education officials reported that about half of Puerto Rico’s schools had lower than normal student attendance³ rates. Only about 60 percent of classroom seats were filled. The government ended up closing nearly 300 schools. Education officials said the move was necessary to meet budget targets.

But the closures created problems for Puerto Rican students and their parents when the new school year started a few weeks ago. With many schools closed, some students had to travel outside their neighborhood to attend school. Their parents often were required to find transportation to and from the school. The children also had new teachers and classmates to get used to.

Ana Maria Garcia Blanco is the director of Instituto Nueva Escuela, a non-profit group that works⁴ with schools all over Puerto Rico. She says parents have expressed concern that so many changes could harm the overall⁵ quality of students’ education.

“Parents are very concerned about overcrowded classrooms, and losing the experience they had before - where their children had more personal attention, and smaller classrooms and more attention from the teacher.”

Garcia Blanco said another parental⁶ concern she heard is that even more schools would be closed in the future in an effort to cut costs. “Those that had good schools are concerned about losing them,” she said.

Recently, the Youth Development Institute of Puerto Rico reported on how education was influenced by Hurricane Maria. The report was based on information collected from more than 500 Puerto Rican students aged⁷ 5-17. Nearly 80 percent of the students reported attending public school.

The study found that on average, students had missed 78 days during the 2017-2018 school year.

In addition, teachers reported observing different or unusual behaviors in 23 percent of students after the hurricane hit.

About 12 percent of students had problems concentrating, while about 10 percent had lower levels of academic performance. About eight percent showed a lack of interest in studying, while nearly six percent were observed to have other behavior issues.

Garcia Blanco says even some of the students who fled to the U.S. mainland after Hurricane Maria experienced⁸ problems. A big issue in some areas was a lack of bilingual education for Puerto Rican students, who are used to speaking Spanish in class.

“Although many of our children could handle English as a Second Language - or as a subject matter in the school program - they did not have the language skills to survive an English-only school in the states.”

In many cases, she says, Puerto Rican children were put in classes with students of lower grade levels because of their English skills alone.

“For example, a child that had finished the fifth grade here in school, they would put him or her in the fourth or third grade. So parents were very concerned with the self-esteem and the life of that child in schooling⁹.”

At least 150,000 Puerto Ricans have fled the island since Hurricane Maria, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies reports. The center is part of Hunter College in New York State.

The center’s director said the large number shows the level of frustration¹⁰ people have with the government’s overall response.

Garcia Blanco says many Puerto Ricans have become deeply concerned that government decisions related¹¹ to education were made without their input¹².

“They don’t feel they have been part of any of the decisions,” she said. “And they are worried that they won’t have anything to say and things will keep happening.”

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

concentrate – v. think carefully about a specific subject

bilingual – adj. using or able to speak two languages

self-esteem – n. confidence in yourself and a belief in your qualities and abilities

frustration – n. feeling of being annoyed because things are not happening in the way that you want

input – n. ideas or effort put into an activity or process in order to help it succeed

response – n. ?something that is done as a reaction to something else

1 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 mainland   

n.大陆，本土

参考例句：

• The new bridge will link the island to the mainland.新的桥梁将把该岛与大陆连接在一起。
• Hong Kong's prosperity relies heavily on mainland.香港的繁荣在很大程度上依赖于大陆。

3 attendance   

n.出席，出席人数，护理，照料

参考例句：

• The attendance of this class never dropped off.这个班的出席人数从未下降。
• The young man danced attendance on his rich aunt.这个年轻人小心侍候他有钱的姑妈。

4 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

5 overall   

n.工作服，工装裤；全面的，全体的

参考例句：

• The shop assistant was wearing a white overall.那店员穿着白色的工作服。
• How much will it cost overall?一共多少钱？

6 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

7 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

8 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

9 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。

10 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

11 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

12 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。