My Op-Ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Perfect Storm Facing American Education
I'm grateful to The Philadelphia Inquirer for publishing my piece today on a crisis that deserves more attention: Congress is simultaneously cutting STEM education funding by 75% while moving to eliminate public media funding entirely.
The timing couldn't be worse. When COVID forced schools into emergency remote learning, broadcast infrastructure like our PBS39 station became essential—reaching students without reliable internet access when digital platforms simply couldn't. We created Lehigh Valley Learns, providing structured educational programming that required nothing more than a TV antenna.
Now we're dismantling that same infrastructure just as education faces its steepest funding cuts in decades.
As I write in the piece: "Tomorrow's scientists are in school today. But if we eliminate both federal STEM education funding and the broadcast infrastructure that can support local educational initiatives, we're creating a perfect storm that will weaken American scientific leadership for generations."
Read the full op-ed: https://share.inquirer.com/SnVHNn
The response has been encouraging, but the policy implications remain urgent. When the next education crisis hits—and it will—we may face it without key infrastructure that proved invaluable during our last emergency.
For those who've been following my work on public media and educational equity, this piece connects those dots in real time, as today's congressional vote puts both at risk simultaneously.
What's your take? Have you seen public media step up during local crises in your community? Comment and let me know—I'm curious how this resonates beyond the Lehigh Valley.