DES MOINES, Iowa — Another executive order is impacting groups here in Iowa. Last week, the Trump administration instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding NPR and PBS.

The two broadcasters are allotted over half a billion dollars in public money from CPB.
Trump’s order in part says, “what does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

PBS says that some stations in smaller communities across the U.S. could lose 40 to 50% of their funding.

Here locally, Iowa PBS General Manager and Executive Director Andrew Batt said in a statement:

“The cuts proposed by the White House will impact all of the services we provide here in Iowa. This includes our ability to share our favorite programs as well as our educational outreach in our schools and local libraries. This federal funding is crucial to continue providing public service content to Iowans.”

Iowa Public Radio also depends on federal funding, which covers about 10% of their budget.

“Well, first of all, they are proposed cuts, so we don’t we haven’t actually seen them yet. But elimination for the of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would leave a hole of about $1 million in our budget,” IPR Executive Director Myrna Johnson said. “So, it would force really tough decisions on the services that we provide to our listeners across the state. We’re a 26 station network across the state. We provide services to really small towns as well as the major metros and we take that really seriously.”

NPR and PBS national leaders have publicly said they will try to push back against the Trump Administration. Local leaders will wait and see.

“We’re all just so committed to what we’re doing that we’re just continuing to do our work. We have a lot of resolve to make sure that we have a strong public radio system here in the state and are working to make sure that we have that service going forward,” Johnson said.
“It has not happened yet. So we’re communicating to the administration and to our elected officials that we believe CPB is important. Listeners and Iowans can voice their opinion and they can also support their local public radio station.”

This is affecting more than just broadcasting. The CPB also announced they’ve been notified by the Department of Education that the “Ready to Learn” grant program has been terminated, effective immediately.

Iowa PBS partners with the Learning Neighborhood Program in Perry for that grant, and they work with the Perry P.A.C.E.S. before and after school program.

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