PBS furloughs 25% of PBS Kids staff following Ready To Learn cuts
Courtesy of PBS
PBS President Paula Kerger at the 2024 PBS Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
ATLANTA — PBS has furloughed staff in response to its changing financial outlook, President Paula Kerger said during her keynote address Monday at the PBS Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
The cuts were related to the abrupt termination of the Department of Education’s 2020–25 Ready To Learn grants earlier this month. CPB subsequently informed PBS and 44 public media stations that receive Ready To Learn grants to stop their work.
“We’ve been forced to furlough really talented members of our staff at PBS as we figure out how to continue to advance the PBS Kids service,” Kerger said at the conference. “We are going to keep fighting.”
In a Friday New York Times feature article, Kerger mentioned that PBS “furloughed a ton of people” this month.
“We had to furlough 25 percent of PBS Kids employees because of the decision by the Department of Education to abruptly cancel the Ready To Learn grant,” a PBS spokesperson told Current in an email. “This decision removes a critical resource that for over 30 years has enabled us to create high-quality, educational PBS Kids content while opening up worlds of possibilities for millions of children across the country.”
Jason Gordon, a spokesperson for the Writers Guild of America East, told Current in an email that freelance writers working on series for PBS Kids also could be affected long-term by the cuts. “Writers for PBS Kids are freelance and work based on production orders. They are not being furloughed but the cuts can impact series orders,” Gordon said.
Separately, a WGA East statement described PBS Kids programming as a “public treasure.” “The efforts to eliminate all government funding for these programs is an attack on children and families across the country,” the statement said.
“Our union will always fight to protect our members’ significant contributions to public television and their vital mission-driven, non-partisan work. We demand that Congress fully fund children’s television in the coming fiscal year. Our children deserve no less.”
TPT, which was awarded $4.6 million for the 2020–25 Ready To Learn grant cycle, has also cut staff working on the animated program Skillsville.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify the status of WGA-East members working on PBS Kids programs. These writers work as freelancers based on production orders. They haven’t been furloughed, as erroneously reported earlier, but funding cuts could impact production orders for their shows.
The annual salary of the current President and CEO of PBS is $1,050,000. I have to wonder 1) if salaries of such magnitude attract mission-driven talent or individuals driven by self interest, 2) how is such a generous salary perceived by tax payers and donors as PBS and its member stations advocate for federal funding and continuously solicit member support, 3) how many furloughs could be reversed by simply reducing the President and CEO’s salary by 50%, 4) how does this salary compare to that of the average professional working in public media, 5) does PBS have a bigger problem with how it’s funded or how it spends those funds?