WASHINGTON – February 2, 2015 – The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) president and CEO Patrick Butler issued the following statement on President Obama’s FY 2016 budget that was released today:
“The Association of Public Television Stations is grateful for President Obama’s recommendation today of level funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) of $445 million for fiscal year 2018. The Administration has been a faithful supporter of public television’s mission of education, public safety and civic leadership, and we very much appreciate this steadfast support.
“We are also pleased that the President included $40 million in his budget as the first installment for an important update to public television’s interconnection system – the backbone of both our education and public safety missions, enabling the efficient distribution of history, science, public affairs and cultural programming to everyone, everywhere, every day, for free, and ensuring the reliability of public television’s national emergency alert system through which the President of the United States can communicate with the public in times of crisis.
“Finally, we are delighted that the President’s budget includes $26 million for Ready To Learn, a unique national-local partnership with a proven record of helping to close the educational achievement gap between children from low-income families and the rest of the student population. Ready To Learn supports the academic rigor of such programs as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, SUPER WHY, Martha Speaks, Peg + Cat and others, and it invests in teacher and caregiver training and other on-the-ground resources that give Ready To Learn the personal touch needed to translate this high-quality, research-based educational content into a life-changing experience for millions of pre-school age children.
“The leaders of many state governments – including Governors Pence of Indiana, Bentley of Alabama and Scott of Florida – are finding public television’s education and public safety services to be highly cost-effective solutions to some of their most important challenges, and we are most grateful for this growing bipartisan support at the state level, as well as in Congress. We look forward to working with all members of Congress to sustain public media’s essential public service mission, our free universal service, local control and local focus as the appropriations process moves forward from today’s most promising beginning.”
About APTS
The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization established in 1979. The mission of APTS is to conduct – in concert with member stations – advocacy, planning, research, communications and other activities that foster a strong and financially sound public television system providing essential public services to all Americans. Its affiliate APTS Action, Inc. promotes the legislative and regulatory interests of noncommercial television stations at the national level through direct advocacy and through grasstops and grassroots campaigns designed to garner bipartisan congressional support. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
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