Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is once again threatened under the new budget President Bush is proposing. And while I know not everyone approves of some of the shows produced for PBS and NPR, due to differences in political beliefs, you probably agree that their children’s shows are excellent.

The cuts would be by about 25%, which is a crippling amount that could keep them from continuing to produce shows such as Sesame Street.

A CPB analysis of the budget said the cuts include the $50 million already appropriated by Congress for next year, elimination of additional funding for digital conversion of public TV stations and a slight decrease in the Ready to Learn program. In addition to the cuts, the traditional advance funding for future years’ programs would disappear, potentially making it harder for public stations to commit to future TV programming.

The word slight in reference to the Ready to Learn program may make it seem like not such a problem on the children’s programming side of things, but as I understand it, this could be a huge problem. They would probably have to cut support for some children’s programs and have difficulty creating new ones.

There’s a site called Free Press that is trying to get permanent funding for public television. One stated goal in this area is:

The operating model of public broadcasting must be recast to fulfill its founding mission to serve as “a forum for debate and controversy” and “a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard.”

Sounds pretty good. One can argue about whether or not public television has been doing this, but it’s still an interesting idea.

I’ll admit that if they had to cut some children’s programming, I have some unfavorites that could go first, but I also have to be honest enough to admit that overall they do a good job for children.

If this is something you are concerned about, the Free Press site has suggestions and links for you to get you started.

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