田思怡譯
In Kathy Aaron's decrepit public school, the heat fills the air with a moldy, rancid odor. Cockroaches, some 3 inches long, scuttle about until they are squashed by a student who volunteers for the task. Water drips from a leaky roof onto the gymnasium floor.
"We have rodents out in the middle of the day," said Aaron, a teacher of 18 years. "Like they're coming to class."
在凱西．亞倫破舊的公立學校裡，空氣悶熱，有發黴、腐臭的味道。蟑螂，有些足足有三吋長，到處亂竄，直到一名自告奮勇的學生把牠們壓扁。屋頂的漏水滴到體育館的地板上。
教了18年書的老師亞倫說：「我們這兒大白天也會有老鼠跑出來，好像牠們也來上課。」
Detroit's public schools are a daily shock to the senses, run down after years of neglect and mismanagement, while failing academically and teetering on the edge of financial collapse. Recently teachers again protested the conditions, calling in sick en masse and forcing a shutdown of most of the city's almost 100 schools.
Things have become so bad, district officials say, that the Detroit public school system could be insolvent by April.
底特律的公立學校每天都帶來感官的震撼，因長年忽略和管理不當而破敗不堪，教學成效甚差，財務也快垮了。最近學校老師再度抗議這些狀況，集體請病假，迫使這個城市的近百所學校大部分停課。
學區官員說，情況糟透了，底特律公立學校系統可能在四月之前破產。
"They're in need of a transformational change,"Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, a Republican, acknowledged in his State of the State speech. "Too many schools are failing at their central task. Not all Detroit students are getting the education they deserve."
Many worry that the state of the schools will hamper Detroit's recovery from bankruptcy, a recovery evident in the new loft-style townhouses and the bustling Whole Foods that Aaron passes near her school, where she teaches fifth grade.
共和黨籍的密西根州州長李克．史奈德在年度州情報告中承認，「學校需要根本的改革，太多學校的核心任務都不及格。並非所有底特律學生都得到了他們應受的教育」。
許多人擔心這些學校的狀況將阻礙底特律從破產中復甦，復甦的跡象已顯現在開放空間風格的新連棟住宅，以及亞倫路過的她學校附近「全食超市」的熱鬧景象。她在學校教五年級。
Residents wonder how the city can ever recoup its lost population and attract young families if the public schools are in abysmal shape.
"As we begin to rebuild this city and we're seeing money and development moving in, people are understanding that there is no way we can improve Detroit without a strong educational system," said Mary Sheffield, a native of Detroit and a City Council member. "We have businesses and restaurants and arenas, but our schools are falling apart and our children are uneducated. There is no Detroit without good schools."
當地居民想知道，如果公立學校的狀況有如地獄深淵，這個城市如何補回流失的人口，以及吸引年輕家庭。
底特律土生土長的市議員瑪麗．薛菲爾德說：「在我們開始重建這個城市之際，我們看到錢和發展湧入，人們逐漸了解，沒有健全的教育體系，我們絕不可能改善底特律。我們有商家、餐廳和大型場館，但我們的學校在崩壞之中，我們的孩子沒有受到教育。沒有好的學校，就沒有底特律。」
The problems predate the municipal bankruptcy. One of the biggest is enrollment, which has been in free fall. In 2000, Detroit Public Schools had close to 150,000 students; this year, there are fewer than 45,000.
這些問題在市政府破產之前即已出現。最大問題之一是註冊人數直線下滑。西元2000年，底特律公立學校有接近15萬名學生；今年不到4萬5千名。
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