--- title: PBS Taught Me English. Shutting It Down Hurts Immigrant Kids. description: For many immigrant children, public television wasn't just entertainment—it was their first classroom, writes Priscilla Blossom. canonical: https://time.com/7320532/pbs-cbs-funding-cuts/ author: Priscilla Blossom article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-02T10:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:19:19.676Z article:section: Ideas og:title: PBS Taught Me English. Shutting It Down Hurts Immigrant Kids. og:description: For many immigrant children, public television wasn't just entertainment—it was their first classroom. og:url: https://time.com/7320532/pbs-cbs-funding-cuts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc285ee79350af168/6998ca161500fb4fcdaa69e7/sesame-street-public-media.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Street Renaming To Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Sesame Street Live og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: PBS Taught Me English. Shutting It Down Hurts Immigrant Kids. twitter:description: For many immigrant children, public television wasn't just entertainment—it was their first classroom. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc285ee79350af168/6998ca161500fb4fcdaa69e7/sesame-street-public-media.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEAS Time ideas # PBS Taught Me English. Shutting It Down Hurts Immigrant Kids. > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Priscilla Blossom](https://time.com/author/priscilla-blossom/) ## Priscilla Blossom Oct 2, 2025 10:00 AM UTC  Sesame Street characters and children from the Garden of Dreams Foundation celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sesame Street Live on Feb. 4, 2010 in New York City. Sesame Street characters and children from the Garden of Dreams Foundation celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sesame Street Live on Feb. 4, 2010 in New York City. Jason Kempin—Getty Images by [Priscilla Blossom](https://time.com/author/priscilla-blossom/) ## Priscilla Blossom Oct 2, 2025 10:00 AM UTC As a child growing up in a Spanish-speaking, immigrant household, I had limited resources available to teach me English. My parents came to this country out of necessity in the 1980s from war-torn Nicaragua. My father worked in construction and only picked up enough English words to get by. Being a former teacher, my mother did her best to teach me to read and write in Spanish. And while my older brother picked up more of the language from playing with neighborhood kids, it wasn’t exactly enough to fully teach me. Fortunately, we had a TV set with plenty of English-language programming, including our local PBS station. Through this, I watched English-language children’s shows like _Sesame Street_, _Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood_, and _Reading Rainbow_. These wonderful programs helped plant the seeds of respect, kindness, a love of learning, and the English language in my mind. But it was also bilingual programs like _Saludos_ (featuring puppets alongside people, similar to _Sesame Street_) and _¿Qué Pasa, USA?_ (a sitcom about a Cuban-American immigrant family living in Miami) that not only taught me English, but also offered some representation of households like mine. By the time I began kindergarten, I was already fully bilingual as a result. And thanks to these shows, I felt less alone in my bilingual, bicultural existence. My story isn’t so rare. There are countless immigrant families that have learned English thanks to the programming on their local PBS channels. Ana Regalado, a popular Mexican food content creator who goes by the handle [@SaltyCocina](https://www.tiktok.com/@saltycocina?lang=en), came to the U.S. at the age of six and says she and her sister would watch PBS throughout the day, especially when it was too hot to play outside. “Programs like _Sesame Street_, _Reading Rainbow_, and _Villa Allegre_ taught us basic math and English words,” says Regalado. “We did not understand at first, but I feel it was a big help.” [Marisel Salazar](https://mariselsalazar.com/), author of [_Latin-Ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines_](https://www.amazon.com/Latin-Ish-Recipes-Celebrating-American-Cuisines/dp/1682688267/ref=sr%5F1%5F4?crid=OC1GJ3P1V2KY&keywords=latin-ish+cookbook&qid=1701970743&sprefix=latin-ish+cookbook%2Caps%2C64&sr=8-4), says she also quickly learned English thanks in part to PBS programming. “The pacing, framework, and structure of _Sesame Street_, plus the adorable characters, made it very easy for me as a child to engage in learning a second language,” says Salazar. And Paulette Erato, Founder of [Latinas in Podcasting](https://www.latinasinpodcasting.com/), says she doesn’t recall a time when PBS wasn’t on the TV for her and her brother. So much so, in fact, that when her mother (who spoke little English) went to check in with her kindergarten teacher to see if Paulette was getting on alright, “the teacher laughed and said I spoke English just fine and understood everything perfectly!” Educational programming, including bilingual programming, continues to exist on PBS stations around the country. Young immigrant children are still being supported in learning English via shows like[_Rosie’s Rules_](https://pbskids.org/rosiesrules)and [_Maya & Miguel_](https://pbskids.org/videos/maya-miguel). In the same vein, young English-speaking children are getting to learn Spanish and embrace multiculturalism. They are the same shows I share with my own bicultural son. Sadly, our country’s leaders appear to be wholly uninterested in raising more generations of empathetic children, much less helping immigrant children and families to feel safe and welcomed in their new homeland. **Read more:** [_What the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Shutting Down Means for PBS And NPR_](https://time.com/7307069/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-pbs-npr/) In recent months, the president signed a bill [cancelling a whopping $1.1 billion in funding for the Center for Public Broadcasting](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/). In it, he claimed government funding of news media today is “outdated” and “unnecessary.” As a direct result, the [CPB later announced they would need to shut down their operations](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/cpb-says-it-is-shutting-down-after-being-defunded-by-congress-targeted-by-trump). While PBS itself won’t shut down anytime soon, they have now lost their largest source of financial support. This loss more directly impacts the local stations that viewers turn to. Not only does PBS reach more than half of all U.S. household televisions, their stations also [reach more children and families than any other children’s TV networks](https://foundation.pbs.org/pbs-fast-facts/). These are households like the one I grew up in. Channels like Disney and Nickelodeon were a rare treat as I got older, but it was PBS that was always there, always available, free for all. PBS programming on my local station brought me the educational shows I needed and loved. And there’s no doubt the ripple effects of local PBS station shutdowns that will be long felt among lower-income immigrant communities. This is especially true for the young Latine children and families who are striving to learn the local language and customs of a country that’s already [waging war against them](https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-08-14/trump-administration-defends-use-of-racial-profiling-to-detain-immigrants.html). Fortunately, there are some [efforts underway to help ease the financial burden these PBS stations are now facing](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/business/the-race-to-rescue-pbs-and-npr-stations.html). Philanthropic organizations like the [Knight Foundation](https://knightfoundation.org/) and others are banding together for this purpose. “While PBS as a national institution is not going away, we are deeply concerned about local access, especially in rural communities where a local station may be the only source for trusted news, emergency information, and educational programming,” says Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, President & CEO, Knight Foundation. “That access is now under threat as many stations face potential closure or severe cutbacks.” Pérez Wadsworth says the Knight Foundation hopes the bridge fund will help stabilize the system and ensure continuity of service. She also says the foundation is still seeking additional funders who recognize what’s at stake. While it’s entirely possible I would have learned English once I finally began school, I was fortunate to have PBS programming at my disposal that helped kickstart my education. The puppets on _Saludos_ and _Sesame Street_ offered lessons in reading, writing, and counting in English. The characters of Luis and Maria gave me a glimpse of what two happy, thriving Latinos looked like living in a neighborhood where kindness was always in high supply. And that was at a time when kids that looked like me didn’t have to worry about ICE Agents coming to take them or their families away; [Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not created until 2003](https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement). So many of us are still so grateful to PBS for giving us a place to turn to for learning and acceptance. Continuing to offer immigrant children and families at least this one source of education and comfort is the least we can do. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. 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