Me want equal access to educational programming! And cookies!

Two little boys huddled on the cement outside the school door Saturday morning. I spotted them as we drove past and I briefly wondered what they were up to.

Then, I realized they were accessing the school’s Wi-Fi. Maybe they were doing homework, but, on that sunny Saturday, probably not. Still, the district’s Wi-Fi , with it’s well-tested firewall, offered them a safe place to access the kind of games and videos that sneak education into their fun.

I don’t know if those little boys were homeless, but I do know the Appleton Area School District launched a fundraiser earlier this week to help support the nearly 300 students they’ve already identified as such. We’re only a month into the school year, so it looks like those numbers will easily surpass the more than 600 students the district identified as homeless last year.

I also don’t know if those little boys just lacked access to the internet away from school, but I do know plenty of families who can’t afford home internet services or data plans.

The educational playing field is not any more level today than it was 50 years ago.

That’s why we need places like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street. Just like it did when it launched back in 1969, Sesame Street gives kids an equal opportunity to learn, no matter where they live. Every community benefits from a solid educational foundation. Families who can’t afford daycare or pre-school rely on public access programs to help their children get ready for school. Early intervention is the key to student success.

So, this week, I turned the giant pumpkin on my porch into Cookie Monster. I did it to remind people that PBS is a worthy, I’d even argue necessary, service for plenty of reasons.

With its federal funding slashed, Sesame Street moved first to HBO and then, when that contract was not renewed, to Netflix. But, how many struggling households can afford a Netflix subscription? And, what good is that subscription if they don’t have access to the internet. For now, the show will still be available on PBS, where kids whose parents can’t afford a Netflix subscription can still watch them.

We still need PBS. Even more than public media, though, what we need in this country is the kind of empathy Fred Rogers solicited when he addressed Congress seeking PBS funding back in 1969.

I think it’s important to understand the wide disparity of opportunity that exists among children in a public school system and to support the avenues of education that mitigate that gap.

I really hope we can all agree on that.