Obama Signs Spending Bill to Protect Teachers’ Jobs

September 1st, 2010 at 02:43am Under Education report

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

President Obama signed legislation Tuesday to provide twenty-six billion dollars to the states for education and healthcare.

The measure includes ten billion dollars for education and sixteen billion for Medicaid, the joint state-federal government medical program for the poor.

The legislation will help one hundred sixty thousand teachers and one hundred fifty thousand police and public service workers keep their jobs.

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.

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.

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.

The president spoke Monday at the University of Texas. He talked about the decrease in college graduation rates in the United States.

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.”

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.

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.

Democrats in Congress say spending for the new bill will not add to the federal budget deficit.

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.

JOHN BOEHNER: “The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs, ‘Stop!’ And Washington continues to spend, spend, spend.”

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.

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.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Lawan Davis. You can read and download scripts at voaspecialenglish.com  I’m Steve Ember.

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Muslim College Opens in US With Hopes and Suspicions

August 23rd, 2010 at 07:37am Under Education report

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Zaytuna College is a new four-year college in Berkeley, California.  Zaytuna is seeking to become the first accredited Muslim college in the United States. The name comes from the Arabic word for olives.

The process of full accreditation could take several years. That will make it easier for students to get financial aid, and to have their education recognized by employers and other schools.

Zaytuna held its first classes this summer — intensive study of Arabic to prepare for classes in the fall.

Zaytuna currently offers two majors, a choice of Islamic law and religion or Arabic language. General education classes include American history, anthropology, philosophy, literature and political science.

Imam Zaid Shakir is a professor and co-founder of Zaytuna. He was born in Berkeley. The college website says he accepted Islam in nineteen seventy-seven while serving in the United States Air Force.

Imam Shakir says he wants teachers who are trained and educated in the United States and who understand American society.

ZAID SHAKIR: “And who also are comfortable with their Americanness on the one hand and comfortable with Islam on the other hand.”

There are millions of American Muslims. But the imam says most of the teachers of Islam in America received their training in other countries. He says Islam has never become rooted in any land until that land had its own Islamic scholars.

Michael Higgins studies the relationship between religion and higher education. The United States has many different religious colleges. But he says he fears there could be protests if Zaytuna College is seen as teaching students not to accept other religions.

MICHAEL HIGGINS: “I think there will be a lot of fear or apprehension around the establishment of a college that adheres to Islam. If it becomes a madrasa or a college of inculcation only, that could be hugely problematic.”

This September eleventh will be nine years since the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the United States. Imam Shakir recognizes that those attacks and other plots since then have fed public suspicions about Islam.

But he says opponents of the college represent a minority opinion in the United States. He says they are reacting to a small group of extremists — a “lunatic fringe” — in the Islamic community.

ZAID SHAKIR: “And I think this is why Zaytuna College is so important. If we prove ourselves, even those more vocal critics will be silenced. It’s up to us; the ball is in our court.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, with reporting by Lonny Shavelson. I’m Steve Ember.

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