WASHINGTON — May 28, 2021 — America’s Public Television Stations said today that President Biden’s recommendation of stable funding for public broadcasting is “a good first step” toward a federal investment that reflects the true value of public media’s services to the American people.
“We very much appreciate the President’s endorsement of our work,” said APTS president and CEO Patrick Butler. “While this proposal is a good first step, we will continue to work with our bipartisan champions on Capitol Hill to enhance the federal investment in our work and restore the $100 million in purchasing power that 10 years of level funding has cost local public television stations.
“We are grateful that 149 Members of Congress, of both parties, have called for a federal investment of $565 million for public broadcasting in the next appropriations cycle to support our public service work in education and remote learning, public safety communications and civic leadership. We anticipate that a similar commitment of bipartisan support for this level of funding will soon be coming in the Senate.
“Throughout the pandemic, public television stations, which serve nearly all Americans, have clearly demonstrated their essential role in public service, standing up remote learning services in all 50 States and U.S. Territories, providing a broad range of standards-based, curriculum-aligned educational services, in collaboration with State and local education authorities, to help students, teachers and parents continue a high-quality learning process, and devoting their entire daytime broadcast schedule to age-appropriate educational programming.
“In addition, public television datacasting has been used to deliver IP data over the broadcast television signal to provide digital educational resources to students without broadband connections, helping to bridge the digital divide and close the homework gap.
“We’ve also conveyed COVID-related information to millions of viewers from Governors, State health and education officials, and other authorities through our role as the “C-SPAN” of many State governments and as the chronicler of hometown America’s history, culture and public affairs. We provide public safety communications to States and local governments across America, and public television stations are the backbone of the national Wireless Emergency Alert system for national emergency communications. And public television stations use our community convening power every day in communities nationwide to help solve our most urgent problems and heal our divisions.
“America’s public television stations are ready to do more, to help revolutionize education in a post-pandemic America, to train more of America’s adults for better jobs, to provide more essential public safety communications services, to create a more well-informed citizenry that considers issues in a civil and constructive manner, and to use a portion of our licensed spectrum to do more to enhance telehealth, national security, Smart Cities connections, transportation efficiency, precision agriculture and more.
“The greater the federal investment in this work, the better and faster we can do it.”
###
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:
Kate Riley
202-654-4206
kriley@apts.org