Advocates Rally on Capitol Hill to Save Public Media
Our rally featured impassioned speakers, cherished PBS Kids characters and some dedicated young viewers.
This morning we joined our allies Avaaz, Creative Majority PAC, MoveOn.org Civic Action and ParentsTogether Action to save funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from Trump’s reckless budget.
After a rally on Capitol Hill featuring speeches from advocates including Free Press Action Fund President and CEO Craig Aaron and 9-year-old Iman Elkoustaf, we delivered 660,000 petitions to Congress. We’re calling on our senators to protect our access to public broadcasting and to think about what we would all lose without the CPB, which provides essential support to hundreds of NPR and PBS stations all over the country.
Our petition reads:
“PBS Kids includes so many great shows, like Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Thomas and Friends, Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street,. PBS Kids and other public media reach 68 percent of all kids ages two to eight. These shows are especially important for low-income and underserved children who do not attend preschool.
“PBS funding is a minuscule fraction of the federal budget. We should be expanding our investments in early childhood education, not cutting proven supports for our littlest learners. Donald Trump can’t make these cuts unless Congress agrees. Let’s make sure they hear from millions of parents and others who know the value of PBS and CPB.”
Check out our rally video and scroll below for some adorable photos:
