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In 1994, Sesame Street used a character named Ronald Grump—a sleazy developer with a garish orange wig, played by Joe Pesci—to teach kids about the dangers of greed. His plan? Bulldoze Sesame Street to make way for a skyscraper.
“If there’s one thing I despise, it’s cheap sentiment!” Grump snarls in one scene. “Hugs, kiddie television, cute furry animals!”
Now, three decades later, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are stripping funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)—a move that could imperil PBS and deprive future generations of Sesame Street, a show that has been an undisputed force for good in the world.
A 2015 study by economists Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine found that kids exposed to Sesame Street were more likely to read and do math at grade level. These outcomes mirror the benefits of attending preschool, an educational opportunity that is not available to about one-third of American children.
“This show initially aired in 1969; its fundamental goal was to reduce the educational deficits experienced by disadvantaged youth,” Levine and Kearney wrote. “It cost pennies on the dollar relative to other early childhood interventions.”
PBS stations receive 15–18% of their budgets from federal CPB funds, roughly $375 million a year. The rest comes from viewers like you.
Sesame Street has cultural benefits as well. A separate study from VoxDev found that kids who watched the show were more aware of racial inequality and more accepting of different cultures. As adults, they were more likely to vote for minority and female political candidates.
Republican antagonism toward public broadcasting is not new. Mitt Romney floated defunding the CPB during his 2012 presidential campaign. Trump repeatedly tried to strip its funding in his first term but was blocked by Congress.
Trump now argues that public broadcasting outlets are biased against him and therefore shouldn’t receive federal funding. But NPR and PBS consistently rank among the most trusted news sources in the country—raising the question of whether Trump is fighting media bias or simply rejecting reality.
In 1992, Ronald Grump gave up his plan to bulldoze Sesame Street after Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch taught him the value of community and cooperation. It’s one of the rare moments Sesame Street may have missed the mark—some cold hearts will never melt. |
