WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 15, 2021 – The House Appropriations Committee today proposed $31.776 million in funding for public television’s Ready To Learn program in Fiscal Year 2022.
The proposed funding is included in the FY 2022 Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The bill was reported today to the full House for consideration.
“We are very pleased that the committee has provided $31.776 million in FY 2022 for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work -- on-air, online and on-the-ground -- in early childhood education, to help build science, math and literacy skills of children between the ages of two and eight, said Patrick Butler, president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations. “Public television content created through Ready To Learn grants has been proven to help close the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers.
“This increase of $2.276 million will enable public television to enhance the successful national-local partnership that produces the high-quality programming and services that have been so important to families during the coronavirus pandemic,” Butler said, “and it will help ensure that local stations can provide essential educational resources to the kids, families, teachers and schools that need it the most.
“With this funding, as well as the proposed $90 million increase in advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the $20 million provision for enhancing our interconnection system, the House Appropriations Committee’s bill would substantially improve our ability to educate more children, protect more lives and property, and enable more well-informed citizens to guide the world’s most important democracy.
“We are especially thankful for the bipartisan leadership of Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Cole, in producing this positive result and keeping faith with the overwhelming majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, who support federal funding for public television,” Butler said. “We are encouraged that this bipartisan congressional support continues to grow year by year, and we will do our best to earn this support every day in service to America’s communities.”
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org