Latest news with #MollyofDenali
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Millions of Kids Learn Through Public Media. Why Take That Away?
For more than 30 years, the federal government made what some might call an unconventional investment in education: It funded television. Not just any television, but PBS KIDS programming. These are the kinds of popular shows that kids enjoy and parents don't fret about, like Molly of Denali, Peg + Cat, and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! — all programming backed by research, tested in classrooms and living rooms, and offered at no cost to families across the country. This investment, known as the Ready To Learn initiative, was designed to do something radical: meet young children where they are and get them ready to learn –- and thrive –-in the classroom from their first days. Now, that program is being eliminated. As someone who has spent two decades leading an independent evaluation of the impact of this initiative and the child-first media it produced — designing national surveys, conducting randomized controlled trials, and hearing firsthand from families in cities and towns across America, I can tell you this: Cutting Ready To Learn is not fiscal prudence. It's a step backward for our nation's children. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter What has made the program effective isn't just the beloved stories and characters. It is the ability to reach all children and to engage them as learners. Through local public media stations and community partners, Ready To Learn brought high-quality, curriculum-based learning to libraries, public housing, laundromats, afterschool programs, and, of course, home screens. For decades, if a child's family could turn on a television or access the internet, they could benefit from educational tools designed to build literacy, math, and science skills. In fact, in the most recent fiscal year alone according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ready To Learn programming reached more than 1.8 billion video streams, 27.6 million digital game plays, 10.2 million television viewers, and 2 million mobile app downloads. And what we know is that when children tuned in, they learned. Children who engaged with Ready To Learn content consistently showed gains in early foundational skills, regardless of whether they were enrolled in preschool. They learned to interpret data on a map. They recognized geometric shapes. They began thinking like scientists and problem-solvers. And they acquired emergent reading skills. Just last week, one of our research teams was conducting an initial round of assessments focused on children's computational thinking skills as part of a study of Lyla in the Loop. And another study team was putting the finishing touches on a report on the resourceful ways families are engaging with podcasts and saw how the format expanded their children's imagination. These aren't just cute kids doing cute kid things; these are the building blocks of educational and economic opportunity. The building blocks of a great nation, you might even say. Related In an era where roughly half of young children in the U.S. are not enrolled in any formal early education program (a discussion for another day), Ready To Learn has served all children — especially in communities where access to quality preschool is scarce or nonexistent. It has offered a rare combination of scale, equity, and proven impact. So why are we making it harder for families to access free, educational resources that work? The decision to terminate this decades-long effort comes amid broader debates about education, culture, and spending. There are real discussions to be had. But this is a data-driven, cost-effective solution to one of those issues that's been working. Unlike many educational interventions that require the development of large-scale infrastructure or intensive professional development, Ready To Learn makes use of our nation's existing public media system. The research is independently conducted. The materials are publicly available. The value is clear. In communities all across the country — Tallahassee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cookeville, Tenn., and many others — I've seen what happens when you put the right tools in front of a curious child: They light up and thrive. And when they thrive from their earliest learning opportunities, their potential is boundless. Our country has spent decades building this infrastructure and then producing, testing and evolving meaningful content in partnership with families across the country. To dismantle this effort now is to break a promise to those families: that we'll do what we can, with what we have, to help every child get ready to learn. Let's not stop them now.
Express Tribune
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Trump administration ends CPB grant funding Sesame Street and PBS kids shows
The Trump administration has terminated a key federal grant program that supported several PBS children's shows, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) confirmed Tuesday. The move follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that directed federal agencies to end funding for NPR and PBS, citing concerns about political bias. Known as Ready To Learn, the $23 million grant funded a wide range of educational content, including long-running shows like Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, and Clifford the Big Red Dog, as well as newer titles such as Molly of Denali, Work It Out Wombats!, and Lyla in the Loop. A Department of Education spokesperson told The New York Times that the grant had supported 'racial justice educational programming,' which the administration deemed divisive. The department said it would instead prioritize content focused on improving academic outcomes. On Friday, the Department of Education formally notified CPB that the 2020–2025 Ready To Learn grant was terminated effective immediately. CPB then instructed PBS and 44 public media stations across 28 states and Washington, D.C., to halt all related programming by Sunday. CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison responded with concern, highlighting the program's bipartisan support and positive impact on early childhood education. 'Nearly every parent has raised their kids on public broadcasting's children's content,' she said. 'We will work with Congress and the Administration to preserve funding for this essential program.' PBS and NPR have vowed to challenge the order. PBS CEO Paula Kreger called the move 'blatantly unlawful' and said the organization would explore all legal and legislative avenues to restore funding.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Administration Terminates Education Grant That Has Helped Fund PBS Kids Content
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said today that the Trump administration has terminated grants that have long been used to fund education initiatives and PBS Kids programming. The CPB said that it was informed by the Department of Education on Friday that the 2020-25 Ready to Learn grant was being canceled, forcing it to inform PBS and 44 public media stations to pause the long-running program. More from Deadline 'Nearly every parent has raised their kids on public broadcasting's children's content,' Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the corporation. 'For the past 30 years, Ready To Learn-funded PBS Kids content has produced measurable, real-world impacts on children's learning. Ready To Learn has received strong bipartisan support from Congress and every Administration for the last 30 years because of the programs' proven educational value in advancing early learning skills for all children. We will work with Congress and the Administration to preserve funding for this essential program.' A spokesperson for the Department of Education did not immediately return a request for comment. The grants have helped fund such shows as Molly of Denali, Work It Out Wombats! and Lyla in the Loop. Ready to Learn was established to improve education for preschool and early elementary students, with goals of reaching those in low-income communities. The Ready to Learn grant was authorized as a 1992 amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS have received grants each five year cycle, with the latest expiring on Sept. 30. According to the Education Department, CPB and PBS were expected to receive a total of $105 million under the program for the past five years. The grants are separate from the congressional appropriation to the CPB, which has been $535 million. Last week, Trump signed an executive order ordering the CPB to end federal funding to PBS and NPR. But the CPB and those networks have challenged the president's authority to do so, as Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.' Trump also ordered other federal agencies to end funding to public media. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
After Emmy win for 'Molly of Denali,' Alaska's X'unei Lance Twitchell reflects on representation, goals and community
Mar. 31—X'unei Lance Twitchell stood at a podium in Los Angeles in mid-March doing something he'd never imagined would be possible. Speaking his native Tlingit language, Twitchell accepted an Emmy Award for an episode he wrote for the PBS Kids program "Molly of Denali." The episode, titled "Not a Mascot," won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Series. But the opportunity and the recognition both seemed unattainable just a handful of years ago. "For Alaskan people and for Alaska Native people, there weren't a whole lot of people that told me that I could do this," Twitchell said in an interview. "So if people have ambitions to do something like this, they should go for it and find training and take classes and surround themselves with people who will lift them up." Twitchell is a professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast as well as a writer in a number of different mediums. It was the fourth episode Twitchell has written for the show, which premiered in 2019. The groundbreaking children's show features an Alaska Native lead character named Molly Mabray and follows her adventures in the state. Twitchell came to the show after its original creative producer, Princess Daazhraii Johnson, had reached out to him about doing some cultural and language consulting. "The show always has a goal of including Alaska Native language," Twitchell said. "That's just such a wonderful operational principle and so I was happy to be involved. I love (Johnson's) work and the things that she does. And then as I learned more about the project, and I saw they really created this whole universe in a collaborative way." Twitchell was invited to be part of a scriptwriting fellowship for Alaska Native writers organized by the show. Even though he was incredibly busy the year it launched, he said the fellowship organizers were incredibly flexible with him as he went through what he called "an intensive writing process." "You get a lot of feedback," he said. "It's quite a bit of work to write an 11-minute episode that is targeted at young viewers and also has to be complex." Twitchell had experience writing for the demographic as an author. He co-authored "Kuhaantí," a children's book written entirely in Tlingit. Twitchell said while he'd always thought he'd write more adult-themed pieces, the show had a deep personal resonance. There are thousands of children's books and shows, but few that represent Alaska Native kids. "There's very few things where we could really see ourselves in it and hear ourselves," he said. "So after you read about 300 books with a chicken and a pig and a cow, you start to think, well, what about our stories? And what about things that we know, and what about our people? "So it was just such a wonderful and refreshing thing, because I could enjoy the episodes that I helped create with my kids." While the show offers an important reflection of cultural identity for Alaska Native people, it's also appealing to audiences across the country. Twitchell said that can be a balancing act between honoring the diversity of Alaska Native cultures encompassing nearly two dozen languages, while making it "relatable to someone who's in Boston or someone who's in Texas." "This opportunity was so special to have a lead character who's an Alaska Native child," he said. "It just felt like an impossibility, and when the idea (for the series) came out — of course, it's a wonderful idea. I just never knew it's gonna be possible. It's just so fabulous." The episode that earned the award — written by Twitchell and story edited by Raye Lankford — involves the topic of Native American mascots. It's an issue that has taken on increasing national relevance in recent years as pro sports teams in Cleveland and Washington have changed their nicknames to remove Native American mascots. In the episode, the fictional Sitka War Chiefs change their name to the Sitka Sundogs. Twitchell said he tried to write the episode to underscore the harm that the mascots can incur but also handle the topic with sensitivity. He talked to fellow "Molly of Denali" writer Vera Starbard — who is also the current Alaska State Writer Laureate — about an approach to the storyline. "We talked about how could we do this without without hurting people or embarrassing people, but just to show, like, you can actually do that and still have a sense of pride and identity," he said. In Los Angeles, Twitchell gave the first portion of the acceptance speech in Tlingit, and while he had prepared to speak if the show won at the March 15 ceremony, it was still a surprise and a thrill. "I know the 'Molly' team had gone twice before, and you know to pick one (episode) you just never know," he said. "And so I just kept telling myself, like, it would be so wonderful for this to happen, for the whole show, for the whole team, but I have to be ready for it not to happen." "I can't believe how much time it felt like until they made that announcement. I could hear my heart beating and feel my heart beating very loud." (Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the winning episode was the second Twitchell has written for the show.)
