Senator McCain doesn’t talk about education much. But I don’t accept the status quo. It is morally unacceptable and economically untenable. It’s time to make a historic commitment to education—a real commitment that will require new resources and new reforms.

　　麦凯恩参议员很少谈及教育，但我无法接受这种现状，这在道德上令人无法接受，在经济上亦难以为继。现在是应该对教育做出历史承诺的时候了—一个需要新资源和新改革的真正承诺。 　　We can start by investing $10 billion to guarantee access to quality, affordable, early childhood education for every child in America. Every dollar that we spend on these programs puts our children on a path to success, while saving us as much as $10 in reduced health care costs, crime, and welfare later on.

　　我们可以先投入100亿美元，保障美国每个孩子都能接受高质量、承受得起的早期儿童教育。花在这些项目上的每1美元不仅能帮助我们的孩子通往胜利之途，而且可以在将来降低医疗保健成本、犯罪和福利等方面节约10美元。 　　We can fix the failures of No Child Left Behind, while focusing on accountability. That means providing the funding that was promised. More importantly, it means reaching high standards, but not by relying on a single, high-stakes standardized test that distorts how teachers teach. Instead, we need to work with governors, educators, and especially teachers to develop better assessment tools that effectively measure student achievement and encourage the kinds of research, scientific investigation, and problem solving that our children will need to compete.

　　我们可以在强调责任心的同时纠正《有教无类法》的失误，这意味着兑现我们所承诺的资金。更重要的是，它意味着要达到较高标准，靠的不是歪曲教师授课内容的一次性大规模标准化考试。相反，我们需要和州长们、教育家们特别是教师们一道，开发有效衡量学生成绩的更好的评估工具，并鼓励对我们的孩子需要参与竞争的相关领域进行调查、科研和如何解决问题等的研究。 　　And we need to recruit an army of new teachers. I’ll make this pledge as President—if you commit your life to teaching, America will pay for your college education. We’ll recruit teachers in math and science, and deploy them to understaffed school districts in our inner cities and rural America. We’ll expand mentoring programs that pair experienced teachers with new recruits. And when our teachers succeed, I won’t just talk about how great they are—I’ll reward their greatness with better pay and more support.

　　我们还需要招聘新的教师队伍。作为总统，我将保证—如果你投身教育事业，美国将会承担你的大学学费。我们将招聘数学和科学教师，派往美国城市和乡村师资不足的地区。我们将扩大有经验教师和新招聘教师“结对子”的教育监督计划。当我们的教师取得成功时，我不会只口头表扬他们的伟大—我将会对他们的伟大成就报以更高的薪酬和更多的支持。 　　But research shows that resources alone won’t create the schools that we need to help our children succeed. We also need to encourage innovation—by adopting curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the twenty-first century; by updating the schools of education that produce most of our teachers; by welcoming charter schools within the public schools system; and streamlining the certification process for engineers or businesspeople who want to shift careers and teach.

　　但研究表明，资源本身并不能创造帮助孩子们取得成功所需要的学校。我们还需要鼓励创新—采用适应21世纪需要的课程和校历，提高培养大多数教师的教育院校的现代化程度，欢迎在公立学校体系内建立特许学校（Charter Schools），简化希望转行做教师的工程师或商业人员的认证手续。