A non-profit organization that promotes the interest of public television stations has criticized federal lawmakers for failing to earmark funding for educational programs during the next fiscal year.
In a lengthy statement released on Wednesday, Kate Riley, the President and Chief Executive Officer of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), called out the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies for releasing a proposed budget this week that offers no restoration of funding for the Ready to Learn educational program that helped supply programming and related materials targeted to pre-school and early grade school children.
Ready To Learn has historically funded the development and distribution of educational content and local outreach programs designed to improve literacy, science and math skills among children ages two through eight.
“It is deeply disheartening that the House Appropriations Committee proposes to eliminate a proven educational program that provides trusted, free access to content and local services for our nation’s youngest learners,” Riley said.
The funding debate follows broader changes in federal support for public broadcasting. Congress eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) last year, leading to the organization’s decision earlier this year to dissolve operations.
While some individuals stepped in to provide local PBS member stations with funding, the sudden windfall wasn’t enough for some smaller operations and grant programs to continue operating over the long term, including the Ready to Learn program.
Supporters of the program said it provided much-needed educational benefits to young children whose families did not have access to preschool or early education opportunities. More than half of children between the ages of three and four do not attend preschool, which makes educational programming offered via public television member stations all the more important, Riley said.
“Ready to Learn provides parents and caregivers with scientifically based, state standards-aligned media tools to improve their children’s literacy and STEM skills,” Riley said.
For more than three decades, the program has funded educational television content, digital resources and community outreach efforts coordinated through local public television stations. The organization said the program’s local partnerships allowed stations to target educational services in communities with the greatest need while leveraging public television’s broad reach. Public television stations are available to approximately 97 percent of Americans through over-the-air broadcasts, and most PBS member stations offer free online streams of their digital broadcast channels through the PBS app.
While the House proposal does not include funding, the appropriations process remains ongoing, and public broadcasting advocates are expected to continue pressing lawmakers for restoration of the program.
“Notwithstanding today’s committee action, we remain hopeful that the strong bipartisan support for local public media’s educational services, both in Congress and among the American people, will ultimately result in full funding for Ready to Learn as the appropriations process moves forward,” Riley said.
