WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 7, 2020)
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS received a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The grant, set for a five-year cycle, provides $24,322,018 per year to fund CPB and PBS’s comprehensive multi-media learning and station engagement initiative. This initiative aims to connect children’s media and learning environments through content where adult role models share how they turned their childhood interests into their life’s work. CPB and PBS have a goal to help parents, caregivers and communities support children’s learning and growth by putting them on a path to success in learning, work, and life.
CPB and PBS will work with experts in early learning and leading children’s media producers including Wombats! (w.t.), produced by GBH and Liza Loops (w.t.), created and produced by Dave Peth, along with additional producers and partners, to create new multimedia platforms, such as with a literacy curriculum, in addition to digital games and podcasts, as well as resources to support family learning at home, in virtual spaces, and in the community.
An excerpt from the announcement:
“During these challenging times, public media continues to deliver value to the American people through our consistent commitment to early learners. As COVID-19 continues to disrupt education, public media is working to ensure that the nation’s children, especially those in low-income communities, have access to learning and are not left behind,” said Pat Harrison, President and CEO for CPB. “The funding by Congress and the Department of Education will provide vital resources to public media for the creation of research-based educational content, that will be offered free of charge and commercial-free, to help children prepare to succeed in work and life.”
The first phase of work will take place in 12 communities, including Anchorage, Alaska (Alaska Public Media); Austin, Texas (Austin PBS); Birmingham, Alabama (Alabama Public Television); Detroit (Detroit Public TV); Las Vegas (Vegas PBS); Lexington, Kentucky (Kentucky Educational Television); Los Angeles (PBS SoCaL); Madison, Wisconsin (PBS Wisconsin); New York (WNET); Owings Mill, Maryland (Maryland Public Television); Pittsburgh (WQED); and Tallahassee, Florida (WFSU). Additional communities will be added during the second through fifth years of the grant.
Congratulations to everyone receiving this grant!
Find more details in the press release: https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/cpb-and-pbs-awarded-ready-to-learn-grant-from-the-us-department-of-education/
