This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报告。
President Obama signed legislation Tuesday to provide twenty-six billion dollars to the states for education and healthcare.
奥巴马周二签署法案，向美国各州提供260亿美元资金用于教育和医保项目。
The measure includes ten billion dollars for education and sixteen billion for Medicaid, the joint state-federal government medical program for the poor.
这其中包括用于教育的100亿美元和用于Medicaid医保项目的160亿美元。Medicaid是美国专门针对低收入人群推出的联邦政府医保项目。
The legislation will help one hundred sixty thousand teachers and one hundred fifty thousand police and public service workers keep their jobs.
该法案将帮助16万教师和15万警察和公务人员保住工作。
The House of Representatives approved the bill Tuesday. House members had already begun a six-week holiday when the Senate approved the measure last week.
周二，众议院通过了该法案。在上周参议院通过该法案时，众议院议员已经开始了为期六周的夏季休会期。
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took the rare step of calling House lawmakers back to Washington to vote on the bill and send it to President Obama without delay.
众议院议长佩洛西（Nancy Pelosi）罕见地将众议院议员召回到华盛顿，对该法案进行表决，以便及时将其递交给奥巴马。
President Obama has stressed the importance of education for all Americans. He said this is necessary for the country to compete among some of the world's fastest growing economies.
奥巴马强调了教育对所有美国人民的重要性。他说，这是美国与几个全球增长最快的经济体竞争的必要条件。
The president spoke Monday at the University of Texas. He talked about the decrease in college graduation rates in the United States.
奥巴马周一在得克萨斯大学发表讲话时谈到了美国大学毕业率的锐减。
BARACK OBAMA: "In a single generation, we've fallen from first place to twelfth place in college graduation rates for young adults. That is unacceptable, but it is not irreversible. We can retake the lead."
奥巴马说：“仅仅在一代人期间，我们的年轻人在大学毕业率方面就从头把交椅滑落到第12位。这一结果让人无法接受，但它并非不可逆转，我们可以重新夺回领头羊位置。”
President Obama said educational success and economic well-being are linked, especially in a world economy driven by information and technology. His goal is to increase the percentage of college graduates from forty percent to sixty percent by the year twenty-twenty.
奥巴马说，教育成果和经济优势互不可分，在信息和科技为动力的全球经济环境中更是如此。他的目标是要在2020年前，将大学毕业生所占的比例从40%提高到60%。
The president said the federal government has already reformed the student loan system and increased tax credits for families struggling to pay college education costs.
奥巴马指出，联邦政府对学生贷款体系进行了改革，同时对支付学费有困难的家庭加大了税收抵免。
Democrats in Congress say spending for the new bill will not add to the federal budget deficit.
国会民主党人表示，这项新法案的支出不会增加联邦赤字。
But some Republican lawmakers criticized the measure. House Republican leader John Boehner dismissed the emergency jobs measure as more wasteful spending aimed at pleasing the Democrats' traditional union allies.
但一些共和党议员抨击了该项措施。众议院共和党领袖约翰·博纳（John Boehner）驳斥这项紧急就业措施是一项更浪费的支出，其目的是取悦民主党传统盟友。
JOHN BOEHNER: "The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs, ‘Stop!' And Washington continues to spend, spend, spend."
约翰·博纳：“美国人声嘶力竭地喊，'停！'而华盛顿却在不断地花钱，花钱，花钱。“
Hours before the vote Tuesday, President Obama told reporters at the White House that education and the safety of communities should not be a political party issue.
在周二表决前的几个小时，奥巴马在白宫对记者表示，教育和国家安全不应该是一个政党争端。
BARACK OBAMA: "Those interests are widely shared throughout this country. A challenge that affects parents, children and citizens in almost every community in America should not be a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It is an American problem."
奥巴马：“这是全美广泛共享的共同利益。这个影响到美国老幼和几乎所有公民的挑战，不应该是民主党一家的问题，而是全部美国人共同的问题。”