Before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC
March 21, 2007
Chairman Obey, Ranking Member Walsh, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for holding this important hearing and for providing each of us with the opportunity to submit testimony and respond to your questions on behalf of a national treasure, America's public broadcasting system.
On September 26, 1966, E.B. White wrote in a letter to the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, "Non-commercial TV should address itself to the ideal of excellence, not the idea of acceptability, which is what keeps commercial TV from climbing the staircase." The same is certainly true for public radio.
This statement guides me as I serve as President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and just so neither I nor my colleagues at CPB forget the mission, I have had the full text of E.B. White's words magnified on our lobby wall.
For 18 months, I have visited public radio and television stations -- talking to station boards and volunteers, parents, teachers, and viewers and listeners. I have experienced first-hand how public television and radio stations, locally owned and operated, commit every day to reaching this ideal of excellence. They do it by creating a partnership of respect between the station and their viewers and listeners through programs that educate, inform, entertain and inspire us to be the citizens we were meant to be. These programs speak to the need of distinct and diverse communities and help shape our civil society beyond the initial broadcast.
My commitment to this great endeavor is to ensure that CPB fulfills the vision for public broadcasting as defined in the legislation, to anticipate change and invest in new technologies so all Americans have access to quality programming. This also means we affirm creative risk taking. We help stations serve underserved and unserved audiences through multiple platforms, invest in innovation, help stations fulfill their mission to their communities, and act as a firewall of independence for public service media.
For the past 40 years, some of America's finest hours have been broadcast on public radio and television. But some question whether the legacy of the last 40 years is still viable in a multi-dimensional, multi-platform, 500-plus channel world? When it comes to public broadcasting, the answer is "yes" and more than ever before. Although advances in technology provide both commercial and public service media with the opportunity to reach more diverse audiences, the question we should be asking is what are we delivering over these multiple platforms?
With public broadcasting, no matter what the technology, our mission remains evergreen: to serve the American people in a way that enhances their lives.
Through technology, we are reaching new audiences not where we last saw them sitting, but where they are in real time, with the connection and content they need, when they need it. The delivery system is the device, but the content is what differentiates us from commercial offerings because we are responding to viewers and listeners as citizens and not as one dimensional consumers. We are meeting their need to know about health and the environmental issues, public affairs, education for our children, concerns for aging parents, information about our neighborhoods and our world, as well as the best in music and cultural programs.
As Lyndon Johnson said at the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967, "From our beginnings as a nation, we have recognized that our security depends upon the enlightenment of our people, that our freedom depends on the communication of many ideas through many channels." He continued, "Our Nation wants more than just material wealth. . . we in America have an appetite for excellence, too. While we work every day to produce new goods and to create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man's spirit." Public radio and television programs, in tandem with our outreach beyond the broadcast, continue to satisfy our appetite for excellence and enrich our spirit.
In 1970, National Public Radio's (NPR) first program director said, "Public radio will promote personal growth rather than corporate gains. It will regard individual differences with respect, rather than derision, and it will celebrate the human experience as infinitely varied rather than vacuous and banal, resulting in a service to listeners which makes them more responsive and informed human beings and intelligent citizens of their community and world."
These are just a few of the reasons why, 40 years after the creation of the public broadcasting system, we are -- and will continue to be -- the must trusted form of media in a five-hundred or five-thousand channel world.
Our programs are not one size fits all. They can be stimulating, moving or sometimes just very difficult to watch or listen to because of their subject matter. A recent segment of StoryCorps on NPR's "Morning Edition" featured Sam Harmon, an African American soldier who served his country in World War II but was refused entrance to see a movie in segregated Washington, D.C. With his grandson in the booth, as he told the story, it was clear that the passage of time failed to diminish the pain that he and we all felt listening to his quiet remembrance.
Built on America's great oral tradition of story telling, CPB is proud to fund StoryCorps which can be heard on NPR's "Morning Edition". We are recording 250,000 oral histories of everyday Americans to be housed at the Library of Congress.
CPB is currently sponsoring a first-ever StoryCorps initiative, the Griot project, focused on collecting the stories of African Americans who served in World War II, who took part in the civil rights movement, as well as stories of African American aunts and uncles, grandparents and parents. This national initiative is the largest effort to collect oral histories from African Americans in almost 80 years. We are a major supporter of StoryCorps and the proud sole-funder of the Griot project.
Where else but in public television would you have six commercially uninterrupted hours dedicated to telling the stories of families who share a common and tragic connection: they each have a child with cancer. "A Lion in the House" underscored the disparity between families of means and those who are asked to choose between staying employed or leaving to care for their children. Viewers of this program volunteered to drive children with cancer to doctors' appointments when the parent could no longer take time off from work. They formed communities of help and support and they worked through local television stations. WTTW in Chicago partnered with the Chicago Pediatric Cancer Cure Coalition to offer referral support and answer questions about childhood cancer services.
Public radio stations also serve as vital links in communities throughout the country. WMMT-FM in Whitesburg, Kentucky utilized members of their community to talk about preventing and managing diabetes through a six hour series. The program was so compelling that stations recast the series into a one hour CD that is now being used by patients and health care providers.
Our upcoming series, "America at a Crossroads" will examine the challenges and opportunities facing our country and the world after the September 11th attacks. Our presenting station, WETA, is providing venues for the filmmakers in this series to talk to standing room only audiences throughout the country, engaging people in dialogue, raising the level of national debate on this important issue. This is not easy television watching, but it is compelling and it is important, and it is groundbreaking.
Whenever you hear the words "groundbreaking" and "television" together, you can be assured it is public television. For instance, where else could you see Producer David Sutherland's powerful documentary, "Country Boys", a production of WBGH/Frontline with funding from CPB/PBS Program Challenge Fund, about two young college-age, but not college-bound, boys from Eastern Kentucky's Appalachian region struggling to get a start in life. Their stories underscore that sometimes it only takes a few dedicated people in a community to make a difference in a young person's life when there is no family, no support, no response to their need for help. Public television viewers responded in an outpouring of 2,000 emails after the first episode and 4,000 after the second, offering a lifeline for Chris and Cody. One viewer wrote, "This is why we need public broadcasting. The program shows why we need to help our young people. These boys represent thousands of children who need and deserve our support."
Since 1975, over 15,000 Kentuckians have received their GEDs via Kentucky Educational Television, adding approximately $84 million to the taxable economy of the state. Nationally, beyond Kentucky, over 1,000,000 adults have used KET's online course to pass the GED test. We calculate that over $5.6 billion has been added into the taxable economy of our nation since the program's inception. Currently, GED Connection is carried by 243 public television stations and reaches over 105 million households.
"Between the Lions" is an award-winning PBS children's series created specifically to teach 4-7 year olds how to read. It is built on a strong foundation of evidence-based research about how children learn to read. Continuous research shows that:
- Four-year-olds who watch "Between the Lions" improved their reading skills 4:1 over four-year-olds who don't engage with "Between the Lions."
- Kindergarten students who watched "Between the Lions" improved their reading skills significantly, compared to similar students who do not watch.
- Spanish-speaking kindergarten children who are learning English viewed "Between the Lions" and performed significantly better on two out of three key measures of phonological awareness, compared to their peers who did not view the show.
- Before working with "Between the Lions" videos and instructional materials, only 23% of children in New Mexico Tribal Head Starts scored above average in key literacy measures. After learning with "Between The Lions," 64% of children scored above average in these measures, they demonstrate that they learn new words three times faster than they did previously—and their scores predict reading success by 2nd grade.
Our educational content is not limited to young children. When it comes to quality programming, our nation's middle and high school students are truly underserved by commercial television.
Ken Burns told us that he felt compelled to do a series on World War II when he learned that a majority of American high school students believe we fought on the side of the Germans during this war.
We are launching an American History and Civics Initiative so that our middle and high school students can have a better grasp of our nation's story, our political system and the evolvement of our civil society. This exciting project represents an investment in the education of American youth through new media.
We must reach the successor generation with the education they need to succeed. This certainly includes Math and Science. We could single out the NOVA program about Percy Julian, a brilliant African-American scientist who faced prejudice and opposition at every step of his career and, despite that, became one of the giants of American chemistry. We have been told how important it is for young people to see people who look like themselves achieving in math and science, physics and engineering. The overwhelming response from the young people who have seen this film is that it has changed their lives.
Federal funding for public broadcasting represents less than $2.00 per taxpayer per year, which in turn represents about 15 percent of the total investment in public broadcasting. For a small station, this represents a lifeline through which they can leverage local funds to continue to provide their service. This is true of stations on Native American reservations and small towns and rural communities throughout our country. For a modest federal investment, the majority of stations raise 85 percent of their funding locally.
Each dollar given to a station comes from a person who believes that their station is fulfilling a community promise, and they believe there are proven benefits being delivered not only through quality programs but through community involvement beyond the broadcast. As I visit with many of our system partners, I can see what each station does to leverage those funds and I believe public broadcasting represents one of the best examples of a successful public-private partnership.
The fact is American public service media provides a safe place for children to learn, a place where listeners and viewers can continue their education, a place where people can hear the issues affecting our lives discussed beyond a sound bite: a lifeline in times of trouble when disaster strikes. This was the case when the stations in Louisiana and Mississippi continued to broadcast critical information in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Chairman, my vision for our nation's public broadcasting system is a multi-platform media system that is a relevant, compelling, safe and meaningful place to educate your kids, enrich your life and connect to your community. We are currently serving this need and we are working everyday to improve upon this mandate and this promise. CPB is continually working with stations to build support for public broadcasting in their communities, leveraging the federal investment and increasing the impact of public broadcasting's activities on community life. In the coming year we will work with stations to develop a broad-based, long-term effort to raise awareness of the contribution that public broadcasting can make to American life. One focus of this effort will be on supporting public broadcasting stations as they invest resources in their communities beyond the actual program broadcast.
People are yearning for a sense of community. They want to know more and they want it from a trusted source for information, education, entertainment and sometimes just plain help. Public broadcasting is that trusted source because we are attentive to our mandate and the promise of public broadcasting.
Mr. Chairman, the American people own this treasure, and we want to make sure the treasure remains for future generations.
Appropriations Request
CPB is requesting a $440 million advance appropriation for FY 2010. CPB has a long history of receiving appropriations enacted two years in advance and we believe this practice is essential. It affords public broadcasters -- who raise 85 percent of their revenues from non-federal sources -- a key measure of certainty in their business planning, and it ensures the continued existence of a firewall protecting their autonomy in programming decisions.
The recent GAO report outlines how important this federal funding through CPB is to public broadcasting stations' operations. Specifically, GAO noted that federal funding "has several positive attributes for licensees. First, licensees have generally broad discretion with federal funds and therefore can use these funds for general station operations. . . Second, licensees incur relatively minimal costs to secure federal funding, compared with funding from other sources. . . Finally, some licensees noted, federal funds are a vehicle to attract other funds."
I would note that by FY 2010, public broadcasters will have faced four years of level funding. A $40 million increase in FY 2010 would result in a net increase below the rate of inflation. Public broadcasters recognize the need for budgetary restraint, and have consistently sought to serve local communities more efficiently and to leverage the federal investment even more effectively. A $40 million increase in FY 2010 will put public broadcasters in a much better position to maintain their strong record of locally based community service.
For FY2008, CPB is requesting $40 million for public broadcasting's continuing conversion to digital technology, and $27 million for the first of three installments of funding for replacement of public radio's satellite interconnection system. Now that Congress has set a date -- February 2009 -- for the end of the digital television transition, these funds are more crucial than ever in ensuring a smooth end to the transition, and continuing the investment in research and development of digital multicast and datacast content and services. In addition, the public radio system needs equipment funding to ensure the success of radio's digital transition and to deliver enhanced digital services to the public.
With regard to satellite interconnection, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires CPB to fund interconnection systems for both public television and radio. The funds we are requesting for FY 2008 will be used to pay for development and capital costs of the system by which the Public Radio Satellite System distributes programs to public radio stations. The scheduled expiration of public radio's current satellite leases necessitates a replacement and provides an opportunity for public broadcasters to develop a system that will be more efficient and will allow full use of stations' digital capabilities.
Education is the cornerstone of public broadcasting. CPB is requesting $32 million for the Department of Education's Ready To Learn program, whose central mission is to equip young children to enter school prepared to become successful learners and achievers. In 2005, CPB, together with PBS, was awarded a Ready To Learn contract to develop and distribute scientifically-researched programming and other content geared to low-income children aged 2 through 8, their parents and their caregivers. Additional funding in FY 2008 will enable programming and materials to be created and tested on a faster timeline, and will enable more communities to become involved in the significant, community-based outreach activities.
Mr. Chairman, the initiatives I've pointed to today are only part of the story of our public service media system in America. This is the national treasure that is available and accessible to all Americans, working every day to strengthen our civil society. I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify and urge you to consider our request for funding.
Thank you.