Is Sesame Street in danger of being bulldozed over?

After threatened cuts by Congress from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the House of Representatives has voted to restore $100 million in funding. However, the appropriations bill still awaits approval from the Senate, and not all cuts were restored.

The Ready to Learn program, a preschool partnership with the Department of Education, is not funded. The CPB provides assistance to more than 1,000 local stations across the country.

PBS, which reaches nearly 90 million people each week, has been under attack by conservative leaders who claim that the public corporation is displaying a liberal bias in its programming. Yet the proposed loss of funding for the network could mean much more than the elimination of a liberal view on television. Youth, particularly minorities, could suffer greatly.

"Insofar as programs that are very effective would go off the air... and they would not be able to create new programming to replace it, it would be a real detriment to the Black community," said Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a longtime consultant to Bill Cosby’s television shows.

"I think that it [the loss of funding] would make PBS more commercial and reliant on sponsors, forcing them to market to children products including junk food," Poussaint said, which would be dangerous in a community that suffers from higher rates of childhood obesity.

Poussaint said that with cuts to PBS, there would be less focus on an educational mission and the quality of programming rather than on attracting ratings. He said that the urge to broadcast programs of limited appeal would be reduced, for fear of less financial rewards.

"PBS has put on important documentaries on subjects from the Civil War to gays in the Black community," he added.

PBS claims that almost 70 percent of television viewers watch public television during the average month. Officials there also said that the demographic breakdown of PBS’s audience mirrors the overall U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, education and income.

''I think PBS and NPR are a big part of my life, and I know that I am not alone,'' said Don Kusler, a spokesman for Americans for Democratic Action, one of the country’s oldest liberal organizations. ''At an educational standpoint, for people of all ages and backgrounds, it would be a great loss.”

Joe Blatt, a lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education and director of the school’s Technology and Education Program, said that the PBS funding issue is essentially one of the equity.

''Although the cuts would be hard on everyone in America, I think that they would fall harder on youth of color,'' Blatt said. ''There are few other places that do free programming of quality like PBS,'' Blatt noted, adding that “PBS has been a real leader for diversity, using inclusive casts and covering a range of cultural backgrounds.”

Many Blacks fear a potential neglect of PBS if Congress does not allocate the necessary funds.

Greg Frison, who works for the Parks Department, grew up watching “Sesame Street” on PBS. ''‘Sesame Street’ is an institution, and one of the best free things there is,'' he said.

Carachua Meuse, a photographer from Harlem, also recalled childhood memories of watching films from “Eyes on the Prize” to “Roots” and believes that the station promotes educational diversity.

After a House subcommittee first proposed the funding cuts from the CPB, fervent campaigns and rallies were staged to protest any such action. After a week of protesting by lobbyists and citizens in support of the public channel, the House decided to fund a modified budget for the corporation.

Though PBS’s fate is still to be determined by the Senate, many remain optimistic.

"The Senate tends to be more of a deliberative body, but I think if the House has approved it, the Senate will follow," said Kusler.