WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 30, 2022 – The House Appropriations Committee today approved $32.5 million for the Ready To Learn program serving America’s youngest children as part of a package of funding for public broadcasting included in the FY 2023 Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The bill was reported to the full House for consideration.
“We are very pleased that the committee has provided $32.5 million in FY 2023 for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports public television’s essential work -- on-air, online and on-the-ground -- in early childhood education, to help build science, math and literacy skills of children between the ages of two and eight,” said Patrick Butler, president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations. “Public television content created through Ready To Learn grants has been proven to help close the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers.
“This increase of $2 million will enable public television to enhance the successful national-local partnership that produces the high-quality programming and services that have been so important to families for decades,” Butler said, “and it will help ensure that local stations can provide essential educational resources to the kids, families, teachers and schools that need it most.
“And we are most grateful that the House Appropriations Committee has recommended an appropriation of $565 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $60 million for station interconnection in the Labor-H bill, and $40 million for public safety and civil defense infrastructure improvements through the Next Gen Warning System funded in the Homeland Security appropriations bill,” Butler said.
“These investments in public broadcasting are critical to local public television stations’ public service missions of education, public safety and civil leadership, and to ensuring that everyone, everywhere, every day has access to these essential services for free.
“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 enhance telehealth, national security, Smart Cities connections, transportation efficiency, precision agriculture and other useful innovations.
“We admire the bipartisan leadership of Committee Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Cole, in producing this positive result,” Butler said. “We are encouraged that this bipartisan congressional support continues to grow year by year, and we will do our best to earn this support every day in service to America’s communities.”
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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:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org