I’ve also seen research that PBS local stations reach more children ages 2 to 5 than any other children’s network,<br />and the new dedicated PBS Kids channel is the only free national programming for children that is available anywhere and anytime.<br />Public, noncommercial broadcasting is also giving kids social-emotional skills like persistence and self-control<br />that are fundamental to success in school, not to mention in the military, the institution where I spent most of my career.<br />I’ve seen articles that say PBS and its member stations are ranked first in public trust among nationally known institutions.<br />According to the Pew Research Center, rising numbers of American children live with one parent or with two parents who both work.<br />The federal appropriation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — about $445 million annually — supports more than a thousand television<br />and radio stations at a cost of about $1.35 per citizen.<br />How Americans restore trust may be an existential question for our country, then,<br />but it’s ultimately a practical one, and our elected officials should advance ideas not with lamentations but with practical measures.<br />Trust among Americans and for many of our institutions is at its lowest levels in generations,<br />and stereotyping and prejudice have become substitutes for knowing and understanding one another as individuals.<br />We need a strong civil society where the connection between different people and groups is firm and vibrant, not brittle and divided.<br />We need broadcasting that treats us as citizens, not simply as consumers.<br />A version of this op-ed appears in print on April 5, 2017, on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Save PBS.
