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