Friday, February 11, 2011

PBS and NPR Funding Dicontinuation

As a public school classroom teacher PBS and NPR provide me, the students of my classes, as well as many other fellow teachers video and audio stories, documentaries, news, and insights into topics that are not available anywhere else. All other media sources are supported by advertising and commercial interests that have as their goals producing profits and not necessarily ideas and information that are non-entertainment and viewership rating producing.

Public broadcasting is one of the functions a society owes itself, and thus should be a primary function of government. This can be one of the biggest bangs for the tax dollar. An educated citizenry is essential for the society to thrive. The BBC has been a better per capita funded media system than ours and should be at least the MINIMUM goal toward which the United States should set its sights. We need to better fund public broadcasting rather than cut that funding.