President's Proposed Budget Cuts Include $5 Million in Public Broadcasting Grants

Among President Obama's proposed $17 billion in budget cuts are $5 million in public broadcasting grants through the Department of Agriculture. The grants are to support rural stations conversion to digital, but the White House says they can be cut because the transition is "now almost complete." Also getting the ax was $66 million for Even Start, a Department of Education program to encourage childhood literacy. The administration said it shown no measurable outcomes and added that early childhood education "is accomplished through significant investments in proven, more effective programs." In a joint statement, the heads of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS, NPR and the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) said they were grateful for what they did get. That was $502 million for CPB, which broke down as $440 million in a two-year advance appropriation for FY 2012 (actually a $10 million increase over 2011); $36 million for digital conversion; $27 million to finish replacing public radio's satellite system, and $25 million for the Ready To Learn project, which funds curriculum-based educational programming/initiatives. But they were also worried about what they didn't get, including emergency funding they had sought to help stations hit hard by the economic crisis and the resulting fall-off in contributions (the vast majority of money comes from donors, and only about 15% from the government). There is also no money for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which has been an infrastructure program under Commerce, or for the Ready To Teach program of the USDA's Rural Digital program, they pointed out.