Paula Kerger:
Yes.
Well, I think the most important thing is that — from our perspective is to make sure that legislators, as they’re thinking about very difficult decisions about how to deal with our country’s budget, understand where these dollars go.
It amounts to about $1.60 per person a year, just to put it into context. And the money goes directly to fund the operations of our stations across the country. When the Public Broadcasting Act was signed back in the late ’60s, it was envisioned that public broadcasting would be a public-private partnership.
This is different than many other public broadcasters around the world, which are largely state-supported. We are not. About 15 percent in aggregate numbers — that’s 1-5 percent — of the budget for public broadcasting comes from the federal government. The rest of it comes from contributed money from viewers like you.
But the idea behind this public-private partnership is that there are many stations in communities that, without the federal support, the stations would not exist. I have been to really extraordinary stations in small parts of the country in places like Granite Falls and in Cookeville, Tennessee, where you just see that the public media stations are such an important part of the fabric of those communities.
This is where people come together. This is where politicians come in for town halls and for debates. This is really a resource that the communities treasure and would not exist were there not federal dollars to help.
