Educational animated content for kids is among the latest great national threats to be addressed by the Trump administration. The publicly funded non-profit Corporation for Public Broadcasting, established by Congress in 1967 to shepherd federal investment in America’s public broadcasting, revealed Tuesday that it has been informed by the Department of Education that the 2020-2025 Ready to Learn grant is being canceled, and will no longer be available to PBS and 44 public stations.
According to DOE communications officer Madi Biederman, the Ready To Learn grants to PBS “were funding racial justice educational programming for 5-8 year-old children. This is not aligned with Administration priorities.” She added, “The Trump Department of Education will prioritize funding that supports meaningful learning and improving student outcomes, not divisive ideologies and woke propaganda.”
Speaking on behalf of the CPB, President & CEO Patricia Harrison pointed out: “Nearly every parent has raised their kids on public broadcasting’s children’s content. 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.”
In fact, the most recent round of Ready To Learn grant funding was awarded to CPB and PBS during Trump’s first term (Betsy DeVos was Secretary of Education at the time). He last week signed an executive order directing CPB to end all federal funding to PBS and National Public Radio (NPR), which is being challenged on the grounds of lack of authority given the private nonprofit corporation status of CPB.
“The decision by the Department of Education to abruptly end the Ready To Learn grant will have an immediate and profound impact on the service PBS provides to families and children across America,” Sara DeWitt, SVP & General Manager of PBS Kids, said in a statement. This decision removes a critical resource public television has used to enable us to create high-quality, educational PBS Kids content while opening up worlds of possibilities for millions of kids across the country. We will continue to fight in order to maintain our essential service.”
In alignment with the administration’s attacks on diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the reference to “woke propaganda” would appear targeted at shows which feature non-white protagonists and their communities, such as Ready To Learn funding recipients Molly of Denali, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning animated series centered on Alaska Native characters (whose history predates the United States of America by thousands of years), which debuted in 2019; Lyla in the Loop, whose star character is an African American/Jamaican girl and introduces young viewers to computational thinking and creative problem solving, which premiered last year; or Alma’s Way, about a young Puerto Rican girl living in a Latino neighborhood in The Bronx (2021).
Other PBS KIDS animated series which have been supported by the Ready To Learn grant program include Work It Out, Wombats! (2023), Ready Jet Go! (2016), Elinor Wonders Why (2020), The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That! (2010), Super Why! (2007), Peg + Cat (2013) and the upcoming Fall 2025 series Phoebe & Jay.
The Ready To Learn grant was authorized as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1992, and funds are distributed to CPB and PBS on a five-yearly cycle. The latest round, expected to allocate $105 million to the media outfits, was due to expire on September 30. Ready To Learn grands are separate from CPB’s congressional appropriation ($535 million).
Animated shows including Carl the Collector (2024), City Island (2022) and Acoustic Rooster (2025) have all received CPB funding contributions, ranging from $1 million to $3 million.
[Source: Deadline]
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