For just $1.60 per American per year — less than 0.01% of the federal budget — the federal investment in public broadcasting allows our local PBS station, Mountain Lake PBS, to deliver essential services: public safety partnerships, trusted educational tools, and local programming that reflects and connects our community.

Local public television stations like ours are among the last truly local media outlets. They partner with federal, state, and local authorities to deliver emergency alerts and enable communication over the broadcast spectrum–reaching areas where mobile service or broadband fall short. This system is already being used for early earthquake warnings, rural search and rescue operations, over-water communication, and crowd control at large public events.

Public television’s infrastructure also includes PBS WARN, which supports the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) system–those geo-targeted emergency texts that reach people wherever they are. PBS WARN is the only nationwide situational awareness tool used by public safety officials to track and evaluate the effectiveness of those alerts.

This is infrastructure that works — and it would be severely compromised without federal support.

Mountain Lake PBS has served the region for nearly 50 years, with educational programming that helps parents become their children’s first teachers. These free, research-based resources have helped generations of kids get ready to learn in school and succeed in life. Public media’s early childhood content — accessible in every household, regardless of income — is consistently ranked No. 1 by parents for preparing children for school.

That reach is critical, especially for the more than 50% of U.S. children aged 3 to 4 who do not attend preschool.

Beyond broadcasting, Mountain Lake PBS supports local learning in meaningful ways. The station hosts free events that impact hundreds of children each year at the station and rural libraries, and leads professional development workshops for educators using PBS LearningMedia. The Beyond the Peaks Student Film Festival empowers youth to tell their stories through film–building confidence, creativity, and connection.

Our local PBS station also plays a unique role in connecting our community. Mountain Lake Journal, a weekly magazine show, dives deep into regional issues–talking with newsmakers

and covering stories that often go overlooked: the arts, health, agriculture, the environment, and more. The station provides trusted election information and brings people together for community forums on aging, mental health, the opioid crisis and other issues that impact this region.

This isn’t just programming — it’s public service, and there’s nothing else like it.

Federal funding is essential, and irreplaceable. It supports the entire public media system, including stations like Mountain Lake PBS, and ensures that these vital services remain free and accessible to everyone.

For the 22nd year in a row, public television was ranked the most trusted institution in America. That trust crosses party lines: a recent YouGov poll found that 65% of people who voted for President Trump think public television is either adequately funded or underfunded.

Congress recognized this support by approving public media funding in the fiscal year 2025 budget. That funding must remain intact.

Mountain Lake PBS matters to me–and it matters to the many people across our region who rely on it for education, information, and connection. I urge Congress to reject any rescission of public media funding and to continue supporting this essential public service.

By Reg Carter is chair of the Board of Trustees Mountain Lake PBS.