On June 2, 2026, America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) was proud to host a briefing and discussion in Washington, D.C. highlighting the successful federal investment in early childhood education through the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn program.
This event was the first in a series of station-centered convenings that APTS will be hosting to highlight the extraordinary educational impacts of the Ready To Learn program over the past 30 years, especially focusing on the role of local stations in leveraging Ready To Learn content and resources locally to reach the children, families, teachers and caregivers most in need in their communities.
The program featured highlights from a new report from the Education Development Center (EDC) documenting how public television has leveraged the Ready To Learn initiative to deliver decades of proven impact on young children’s literacy, math and science learning. For more details, please read the full report and the executive summary.
The program discussed how the success of Ready To Learn has been built on a national-local partnership of high-quality, deeply researched and effective educational content and services that local public television stations deliver for free each day to local communities across the country and amplify the impact with on-the-ground wrap around resources for parents, teachers, students and caregivers in neighborhoods and schools where the resources are most needed.
The panelists included:
- Shelley Pasnik, report lead and Senior Vice President of EDC, and a national expert in children and media
- Sara DeWitt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PBS KIDS
- Susan Goldberg, President and CEO of GBH in Boston, Massachusetts
- Becky Magura, President and CEO of Nashville PBS
- Ed Ulman, President and CEO of Alaska Public Media (AKPM)
The event was moderated by Kate Riley, President and CEO of APTS.
We are grateful to all the panelists for their inspiring remarks on the power of public television’s Ready To Learn content and services that make a difference in children’s lives in local communities across the country.
Future station-centered regional convenings will be held this fall and more information on the location and timing of the events will be announced soon.
Watch a recording of this event: