WASHINGTON—The House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies this week proposed zero funding for local public broadcasting stations’ educational content and services in its fiscal year 2027 appropriations bills.

Congress nixed funding for PBS’s “Ready to Learn” children’s educational program—which provides competitive grants for local community educational initiatives—when it eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2025. CPB voted to dissolve the organization earlier this year.

This week’s refusal to restore funding elicited a strong response from America’s Public Television Stations, which just last week held its virtual “Protect My Public Media” campaign.

“In addition to being deeply disappointed, as we noted last week, that the House Appropriations Committee did not restore funding for local public broadcasting stations in its FY 2027 Labor-HHS-Education bill, we now know that the bill also neglects to fund the Ready To Learn program, a critically important education competitive grant program that supports the creation and distribution of educational media content and services to millions of children across America,” said Kate Riley, president and CEO of APTS.

“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—content that is especially important for the over 50% of three- to four-year-olds that do not attend a formal preschool.

“For over three decades, this highly successful program has been proven to prepare children for success in school and life by using the power of public television’s on-air, online, mobile and on-the-ground educational content and services to build the science, math and literacy skills of children ages two to eight, especially those from low-income families.

“The program combines the ability of public television to reach nearly 97% of Americans with a free over-the-air signal, with on-the-ground local station engagement that helps families and teachers make the most of these media resources locally,” she concluded.

Riley pointed to a recently released report from the Education Development Center documenting the significant positive impact Ready to Learn content and the wraparound local-station community outreach services have on the educational outcomes for our nation’s youngest learners.

“Ready to Learn provides parents and caregivers with scientifically based, state standards-aligned media tools to improve their children’s literacy and STEM skills,” she said. “It also builds community engagement through partnerships facilitated by local public television stations to effectively target services where they are most needed.

“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.”

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed its final fiscal year (FY) 2026 minibus package of funding, which includes money for public broadcasting’s Next Generation Warning System as well as its “Ready to Learn” grant program.

The package, which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS-Education) bill and the Homeland Security bill, will allocate $48 million for the emergency alert system and $31 million for “Ready for Learn.”

In the summer of 2025, Congress severely cut funding for public broadcasting, resulting in the eventual shuttering of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In August, CPB announced that it was ending its grant program for the Next Generation Warning System, suggesting that the funding for the grant should continue under FEMA.

Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, issued a statement applauding this week’s vote.

“While America’s Public Television Stations are deeply disappointed that the final package does not restore any of the local station funding that was rescinded last year— a devastating missed opportunity for Congress to save local stations, particularly those serving rural areas—we are grateful that the bill provides some funding for the important public safety and education services that public media provides in communities throughout the country.

“We are pleased that the final minibus package recognizes the lifesaving work of local public broadcasting stations and provides $48 million for public broadcasting’s Next Generation Warning System for fiscal year 2026. This program within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA enhances local public broadcasting stations' ability to provide alert and warning and interoperable public safety communications to communities across the country, and to incorporate emerging technology in those lifesaving activities. Public broadcasting has long been a committed partner with the local, state and federal public safety community. That work depends on reliable and resilient public broadcasting infrastructure, which this program supports.

“We are also grateful for the $31 million for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports the creation and distribution of educational media content and services to millions of children across America. For over three decades, this program has been proven to prepare all children for success in school and life by using the power of public television’s on-air, online, mobile and on-the-ground educational content and services to build the science, math and literacy skills of children ages two to eight.

“At the same time, we are incredibly disappointed that this bill misses a critical opportunity to restore essential funding for local stations. Since the rescission vote last year, Americans in every community across the country, especially rural communities, have experienced the loss of essential services that only local, independent public television stations provide.

"Two stations have already announced their closures and without federal funding, many more local stations have been forced to eliminate or reduce local programs and services, including local history programs, community event coverage, agricultural programming and local public affairs programming, among others. Still others are putting off much needed infrastructure investments – risking programming and public safety services. The impacts in local communities are impossible to ignore.

“We appreciate Representative Bacon’s (R-NE) and Representative Amodei’s (R-NV) amendment which attempted to restore some funding for local stations in this minibus package as well as the support of bipartisan Members of Congress in both the House and the Senate, who have been working to try to save local stations throughout the FY 2026 funding process.

“We are not giving up. We will not stop fighting for our local stations and the vital services they provide their communities. We remain hopeful that continued Congressional bipartisan support in the upcoming FY 2027 appropriations process will enable a restoration of local station funding to support stations’ essential missions of public safety, education and local community connections.”

WASHINGTON—Following a decision by U.S. Department of Education to terminate its 2020-2025 Ready To Learn to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB has informed recipients of the grant money, which include PBS and 44 public media stations, that they must immediately pause the program.

CPB strongly pushed back against the decision and said it would work with Congress and the administration to restore the funding.

Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, also issued a statement in opposition to the termination of the grant money, saying, "America’s Public Television Stations are deeply concerned by the U.S. Department of Education’s termination of public television’s 2020-2025 Ready To Learn grant. This abrupt termination of a congressionally funded grant will limit the creation of and access to the kids’ educational programs and resources that American children and families rely on.

In addition to the Department of Education decision, the Trump administration has ordered the CPB to stop funding PBS and NPR and the Federal Communications Commission has opened an investigation into PBS and NPR sponsorship efforts. The Trump administration is also attempting to fire three members of the CPB board.

The CPB noted that grants from Ready To Learn have helped fund such shows as “Molly of Denali,” “Work It Out Wombats!” and “Lyla in the Loop.” In the most recent fiscal year, Ready To Learn content reached more than 1.8 billion video streams, 27.6 million digital game plays, 10.2 million television viewers, and 2 million mobile app downloads, the CPB reported.

“Nearly every parent has raised their kids on public broadcasting’s children’s content. For the past 30 years, Ready To Learn-funded PBS Kids content has produced measurable, real-world impacts on children’s learning,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said. “Ready To Learn has received strong bipartisan support from Congress and every Administration for the last 30 years because of the programs’ proven educational value in advancing early learning skills for all children. We will work with Congress and the Administration to preserve funding for this essential program.”

Ready To Learn is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The U.S. Department of Education, which the Trump administration is trying to eliminate, has held the Ready To Learn Programming grant competition every five years since 1995, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS have won grants in every cycle. The 2020-2025 cycle expires on September 30.

In a statement opposing the decision, APTS's Riley also noted that “Ready To Learn supports the creation and distribution of educational media content to millions of children across America. For nearly 30 years, over 100 studies have confirmed that this program has helped build science, math and literacy skills of children ages two to eight and close the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers."

More specifically, she said that "the investment in Ready To Learn has supported the production and academic rigor of PBS KIDS series, such as Molly of Denali, Wild Kratts, Work it Out Wombats!, Lyla in the Loop, Elinor Wonders Why, Peg + Cat, SuperWhy!, Martha Speaks, Odd Squad and other iconic programming for children.," she said.

"We are pursuing all options and working with Congress to restore this essential program to support the families and communities that rely on our local stations to provide proven educational resources every day to Americans in every corner of this country," she said.

WASHINGTON—The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) last week asked Congress to appropriate $455 million for fiscal year 2021—$10 million more than the annual funding its requested since 2015.

CPB also asked for $20 million in fiscal year 2019 for replacement of the public broadcasting interconnection system and $30 million for the Department of Education’s Ready To Learn program. Last month, Congress allocated $445 million to CPB for fiscal 2020 in its omnibus spending bill.

Patricia de Stacy Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, who made the request April 19 to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, said 95 cents of every dollar the corporation receives supports local public stations and programs, thereby serving their local communities.

“Through the nearly 1,500 locally owned and operated public radio and television stations across the country, public media reaches 99 percent of the American people from big cities to small towns and rural communities,” said de Stacy Harrison. “At approximately $1.35 per citizen per year, it is one of America’s best infrastructure investments—paying huge dividends in education, public safety and civic leadership for millions of Americans and their families.”

She pointed to CPB’s collaboration with the Department of Education’s Ready To Learn program as an example of how public media combines “high-quality educational content” with the work happening on the ground in local communities.

Besides their work creating broadcast, Web and mobile content, local public broadcasters engage with “community partners” to extend their children’s content via Head Start centers, daycare facilities, local health centers and faith-based organizations, she said.

Referencing public media’s interconnection, de Stacy Harrison told the subcommittee how important the infrastructure is to public broadcasters. “Without it, there is no nationwide public media service,” she said.

Since fiscal year 1991, Congress has consistently funded the interconnection with a separate, periodic appropriation. Doing so gives CPB “the agility to contract for incremental upgrades as innovations in technology are realized and costs come down,” she said.