House Plan Slashes Aid for Education Shows on Public TV

Democrats in Congress and supporters of public broadcasting say that pure politics, rather than budget considerations, led a congressional subcommittee to approve deep budget cuts to public television and radio this month. The plan includes the elimination of a Department of Education program that helps seed children’s educational TV shows.

“There are those in Congress who’ve wanted to eliminate public broadcasting for a long time, and the horrible deficit situation plus the perception that public broadcasting is divided right now has created an opportunity in their eyes to act now,” said John Lawson, the president of the Association of Public Television Stations, a Washington lobbying group for individual stations.

Under the cuts approved June 9 by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes federal money to public-television and -radio outlets, would decrease from $400 million this year to $300 million in fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. The CPB provides a foundation of funding for basic operations for many stations, which allows them to pay dues for national programs that include the...