使用大学捐赠基金，花费多少钱才过分？

With College Endowments, How Much Is Too Much?

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

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.

Colleges and their endowments are excused from taxes. Other tax-exempt groups are required to spend at least five percent of their endowments each year. Some people, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, think it is reasonable to consider such a requirement for colleges.

The senator praised Harvard and Yale for their plans and said he hopes others will follow.

Senator Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which deals with tax policy. Last September, at his urging, the committee questioned experts about this issue.

One was Lynn Munson of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. She says universities pay out only about four percent of their endowments, yet their investments earn much more than that.

A study found that endowments of more than one billion dollars earned an average return of fifteen percent in two thousand six. The average for all endowments was just under eleven percent.

But some experts say most endowment money has to remain invested so schools are not hurt when markets fall.

Also, universities point out that donors often restrict the uses for their donations. Still, Lynn Munson said forty-five percent of endowment money at private schools is unrestricted, and twenty percent at public colleges.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

这里是VOA特别英语教育报道。

一笔捐赠的基金是来自捐款和投资的收益。大学使用捐赠基金帮助学生和改善大学校园，以及作为财务保障。

但是在美国的大学学费用一直上涨得比通货膨胀快。毕业生常要面对来自学生贷款的多年的债务。然而60多所大专院校，一半是公立的，至少有价值10亿美元的捐赠基金。

批评家说有钱很多的学校应该拿出更多的财富以减轻家庭的经济负担。我们上周报道，有些学校现在正在计划那么做。这些学校包括哈佛和耶鲁。他们也要将钱给那些收入远远超过现在正受到资助的家庭。

哈佛大学拥有350亿美元的捐赠基金，是美国大学中最有钱的学校。其次是耶鲁大学，有225亿美元。

然而，当较少获得捐款或赠款的大学要与这些变化竞争时，一些教育活动家担心可能会发生的事情。他们说帮助上层中产阶级家庭的压力可能意味着减少对贫困生的资助。

大学和他们的捐赠基金是免税的。其他免税的组织按规定要花费他们至少每年5%的捐赠基金。有些人，包括衣阿华州的参议员恰克•格拉斯利，认为应该考虑对大学作这样的要求。

这位参议员称赞哈佛和耶鲁的计划并且说他希望其它学校效仿。

参议员格拉斯利是参议院金融委员会的共和党领袖。该委员会负责制定税收政策。去年9月，在他的催促下，该委员会就这个问题咨询了专家。

其中一位专家是大学支付能力和生产能力中心的林恩•芒森。她说大学只支付大约4%的捐赠基金，然而他们的投资收益远远超过了它。

一项研究发现基金规模超过10亿美元的捐赠基金在2006年挣得15% 的平均利润。全部捐赠基金的平均收益低于11%。

但是一些专家说大多数捐助钱必须坚持用于投资，因此当市场利率下降时，学校没被伤害。

此外，大学指出捐赠人经常为他们的捐款限制用途。可是林恩•芒森说在私立学校45%的捐款无限制，而在公立大学为20%。

以上VOA特别英语教育报道，由南希·斯坦芭撰稿。我是史蒂夫·安贝。