Federal Grant Boosts Educational Television, Faces Fresh Scrutiny

A little-known program in the U.S. Department of Education has helped transform children’s educational television over the past decade by partially financing a slate of shows designed to prepare more young viewers to embrace learning, the program’s proponents say.

The Ready to Learn program attracted unusual attention last month when one of the shows it helped get on the air, “Postcards from Buster,” drew criticism from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings over its production of an episode featuring two Vermont families headed by lesbian couples.

The flap comes just as a five-year Ready to Learn grant is nearing its end, and the Education Department and the participants in the grant program are weighing its effectiveness and how the next five-year...