With College Endowments, How Much Is Too Much?(1/2)

An endowment is money from donations and investments. Colleges use endowment money for student aid and campus improvements, and for financial security.

But college costs in the United States have been rising faster than inflation. Graduates often face years of debt from student loans. Yet more than sixty colleges and universities, half of them public, have endowments worth at least one billion dollars.

Critics say schools with a lot of money should be sharing more of their wealth to ease the struggle for families. As we reported last week, some now plan to do just that. These include Harvard and Yale. They will also give money to families that earn much more than those that now receive aid.

Harvard has by far the largest endowment of any American university, thirty-five billion, followed by Yale at twenty-two and a half billion.Yet some educational activists worry what might happen as less-endowed colleges try to compete with these changes. They say the pressure to help upper middle-class families might mean less aid for poor students.

参考译文：

捐助基金源于(社会各界的)捐款和投资。大学利用捐助基金来提供学生助学、校园修缮和保障金融安全。

但是在美国，大学(发展)成本的增长的比通货膨胀的速度都快。毕业生经常面临几年的助学贷款未偿清的问题。然而六十多所高校的捐助款至少有10亿美金，这其中一半是公立大学。

评论家称，经济条件好的学校应该拿出更多的资金来减轻（学生）家庭的负担。正如我们上周所报导的，一些学校,包括哈佛和耶鲁,现正计划这样做。相比正在接受资助的家庭，他们还将向收入较高的家庭提供资助。

到目前为止，哈佛在美国所有高校中拥有最大的一笔捐助基金，350亿，第二位是耶鲁大学，225亿。但是一些教育活动家担心当得到捐助少的大学试图赶超对手时会发生的情况。他们说帮助中上阶层家庭的压力可能意味着对贫困学生的较少援助。

TAG: voa,voa下载,voa慢速英语,voa英语,voa news,voa english,voa special,voa听力 ,美国之音