2017考博英语阅读题源经济学人文章每日精析（四十）

　　ese is to exercise oversight. Milwaukee, the city in Wisconsin where school-choice was pioneered, began by allowing virtually anyone to open a school. This invited chancers, including a convicted rapist and a man who used taxpayers’ money to buy himself a pair of Mercedes-Benz cars. As a result, Milwaukee is now more careful about who can start a school. So is Massachusetts, which has some of the best charters in the country. Michigan, in contrast, has favoured quantity over quality: the state is home to three of the ten school districts with the highest share of charter students in America.

　　第一，行使监督。威斯康星州的密尔沃基在择校问题上首开先河，刚开始允许所有人开办学校。这招致了很多投机份子，其中包括一名强奸犯和一名利用纳税人的钱为自己购买两辆梅赛德斯奔驰汽车的人。因此，密尔沃基现在对开办学校的人更加谨慎。即使马萨诸塞州有一些较好的特许学校，也对此十分谨慎。相反，密歇根却更着眼于特许学校的学生的数量而非学校的质量。美国特许生所占比例最高的前十的学区中有三所在密歇根。

　　A second principle is that oversight remains necessary even when vouchers and charters are up and running. Although the absence of bureaucracy is one of the biggest advantages of such schools, light-touch regulation is not the same as no regulation. As Milton Friedman, patron saint of the school-choice movement, put it, schools must meet “certain minimum standards laid down by the appropriate governmental unit”. In New Orleans, which has a successful charter-school scheme, the school district is ruthless about weeding out poorly performing schools. Worryingly, Mrs DeVos led a campaign against preventing underperforming charters in Michigan from expanding.

　　原则二，即使凭证和章程运行正常，但也需要监督。虽然这些学校的一大优势是不存在官僚管理，但轻度监管不等于没有监管。作为择校运动中的守护神，米尔顿·佛里德曼提出，所有学校必须符合“正规政府单位提出的某些最低标准”。在新奥尔良，特许学校计划成功实施，学区会无情地淘汰运行不佳的学校。但令人担忧的是，DeVos夫人领导了一场运动，反对在密歇根阻止运行不佳学校的扩张。

　　As Friedman also knew, markets work well only if buyers have the data with which to make an informed choice. That leads to the third principle: schools receiving public money should publish facts and figures about their performance. The best gauges are based on pupil improvement and other measures of value-added, rather than raw test scores. Alas, Michigan’s charters are among the country’s least transparent.

　　因为佛里德曼也知道，只要买家根据数据，在知情的情况下做出明智的选择，市场就能运行良好。这就引出了原则三，即接收公款的学校要公布事实，拿出数据来表示他们的运行状况。最好的指标是以学生的提高和其他措施的增值为基础的，而不是原始成绩。可是，密歇根的特许学校却是这个国家最不透明的学校。

　　Put your hands up for Detroit

　　支持底特律

　　America’s education system is decentralised: federal money makes up just under 9% of funding for secondary schools. But Mrs DeVos can still make a big difference. Federal dollars change behaviour at the margins: witness the impact of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top programme, which gives extra money to successful states. If states take the encouragement offered by the Trump administration to expand school choice, they should thank Mrs DeVos—then study how her home state could have done better.

　　美国的教育系统是分散的，联邦资金中只有不到9%的资金投入中学。不过，DeVos夫人有很大的影响力。联邦资金对政府的行为有轻微的作用：见证了奥巴马政府力争上游的计划的影响，这个计划在很多州都实施成功了，并为他们提供了额外的资金。

考博必备！历年真题及答案

考博精品好课，就选新东方！