Alabama doesn’t get to be first very often. But when it came to public educational television, we weren’t just first—we were the model other states scrambled to follow.
In 1953, while much of the country was still treating television like a novelty, Alabama created the Alabama Educational Television Commission. Two years later, we launched what is recognized as the nation’s first statewide educational television network. That happened before PBS existed, before the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and before the federal government created any national framework for public media.
Alabama—the state so often dismissed by national commentators—was once a pioneer in public education through broadcasting.
For 70 years, this system has done exactly what it was created to do: bring learning, culture, science, history, and reliable information into every home, regardless of zip code or income. It connected the Black Belt as reliably as it connected Birmingham. It served rural students long before broadband arrived, and long before many policymakers even recognized that digital access mattered.
When Mississippi banned Sesame Street in 1970 because the cast was integrated, Alabama Public Television carried the program without controversy. During school closures and crises in the Civil Rights era, APT kept teaching when other options collapsed. When COVID shut down classrooms, APT instantly became the state’s learning platform. And across storm after storm, tornado after tornado, APT’s signal has remained a lifeline when others faltered.
These aren’t sentimental memories. They are facts—the logical foundation for why this institution matters. Alabama built something remarkable, something that served the common good with consistency and integrity. There is simply no rational argument, based on its record, for undermining it.
Yet that is where we are headed. The erosion has been slow and deliberate, driven by the kind of politics that corrodes anything built for the public benefit. As I have said before, the appetite for hate and the thirst for control are overwhelming the common good.
And in this case, Republican lawmakers are bowing to the insanity within the party’s base, where paranoia, fear, and an intense hatred of “the others” has fouled common sense.
Public broadcasting is facing attacks not because it has changed, but because politics has. PBS does not tailor its programming to soothe political egos. APT does not bend to misinformation or grievance. Their integrity—their independence—is precisely why they have become targets. And that brings us to accountability, because Alabama is not losing PBS. Alabama is pushing PBS away.
Every lawmaker involved in this understands exactly what is at stake. They know how many rural children depend on APT because their homes still lack broadband. They know APT is part of the state’s emergency communications network. They know APT produces the only in-depth cultural and historical programming about Alabama available anywhere. They know Alabama was first. They know what this legacy represents.
And they know what dismantling it will mean.
And let’s be clear: the Alabama Legislature has the money to fix this. APT’s financial strain is not a natural disaster—it is the result of state leaders choosing not to fund a public institution that serves millions. In a budget year with record surpluses and special appropriations for far less essential projects, the Legislature could stabilize APT’s partnership with PBS tomorrow. They simply choose not to. No one in Montgomery should claim their hands are tied. They are not.
Accountability demands that we call this what it is: a choice. Not a fiscal necessity. Not a structural failure. A deliberate choice by elected officials who would rather appease the loudest, angriest voices than protect a public good that serves millions. A choice to sacrifice educational equity so politicians can signal their loyalty to the culture war. A choice to trade away a national achievement that generations of Alabamians built, protected, and relied on.
The emotional appeal here is not nostalgia—it is fairness. Children in Wilcox County deserve the same educational access as children in Huntsville. Families deserve truth, science, culture, and information free from political distortion. Public goods should not be casualties of political insecurity.
Educational television is not outdated. It is not redundant. It is not expendable. It is one of Alabama’s genuine civic achievements—a rare instance where our state led the nation. If we lose it, it will not return.
And Alabama will not be able to claim ignorance. Our leaders will have done it willfully.
Alabama led the nation once. We can do it again, but only if our leaders stop sacrificing the common good for the approval of the angriest voices in the room.
If APT is dismantled, the responsibility will fall squarely on those who bowed to fear instead of standing for the public.
History will remember who protected Alabama’s future — and who helped burn down one of its greatest achievements.
