STATEMENT OF MARSHALL C. TURNER, JR.

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Chairman, Senator Specter, Members of the subcommittee...

My name is Marshall C. Turner. I am Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation

for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

I am accompanied today by Mr. Donald E. Ledwig, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Frederick DeMarco, Senior Vice President, Station Relations and Treasurer of CPB.

I welcome this opportunity to appear before you today for two main reasons: to record my support for the Corporation's request for an appropriation of $279 million for fiscal year 1994 for general operations; and to testify in support of the Corporation's request for an appropriation of $76 million for the new Public Telecommunications-for-Education Fund. This fund would be used exclusively to create and deliver educational programming and services to all Americans.

But, before addressing these two issues, I wish to thank this subcommittee for its unwavering support and enthusiasm for public broadcasting for the past 24 years.

Also, inasmuch as this is my first appearance before you as Chairman of the CPB Board of Directors, I would like to note that my biography is attached to my prepared testimony.

Mr. Chairman, CPB is well aware that within the jurisdiction of this subcommittee alone, there are scores of programs that help people meet one of life's basic necessities, quality health care, as well as other important social needs such as raising educational standards and providing safer working environments for America's workforce. When it comes to choosing among worthy programs, CPB appreciates the hard choices that this subcommittee makes each year, and particularly this year.

Any activity receiving federal funds must strive to return the best possible value for each dollar spent. Each program should evaluate periodically its activities and capabilities in relation to its mission, and shift resources as success is achieved on some goals, and as new opportunities arise to more effectively use the program's capabilities.

During the last 24 years, you have helped create and build an outstanding system of public radio and television stations, and many of the outstanding programs we air. Public broadcasting is broadly supported and heavily used by viewers and listeners today. Public broadcasting strives to give Americans the opportunity to see or hear educational, cultural, and public affairs programs of the highest quality -- and almost always succeeds.

But there is one glaring opportunity where the infrastructure that is public broadcasting is greatly underutilized in relation to its potential to help address a critical national need. Today, a confluence of influences -- new technological capabilities, expanded capacity of public broadcasting's

communication capabilties, the maturity and community relationships of public broadcasting stations,

and emerging national concensus regarding the more effective goals for education -- offer us an opportunity to tap our underutilized potential to improve the education of Americans of all ages.

CPB'S PROPOSAL FOR A SEPARATE EDUCATION FUND

Our country faces no greater challenges than improving education and upgrading our workforce. Our ability to solve other problems will require the success of these two. CPB believes firmly that public broadcasting is positioned to contribute more to solving these serious problems than it has in the past.

Certainly, public broadcasting has proven to be an enormously wise investment for our youth and their education. We know that the average child spends more time watching television than being instructed in school each week. Educators maintain that the children who view our programs are prepared better academically than those who do not. But this is only a start. Public broadcasting has asked the question, "How can we better utilize the potential benefits of television and radio?" Our answer has several components.

CPB is certain that one way is to maximize the value of our programming and services by extending their impact through outreach activities and conversion to educational materials. For example, what made The Civil War such a magnificent achievement was not just its ability to rivet the nation's attention over a five-night broadcast period. The more compelling value is in its use now as a television course by schools, colleges, and universities in dozens of states. Major funding was provided by CPB for the initial development of the program and more recently, for the accompanying course materials. In the near future, CPB's investment in the development of an interactive videodisc will enable students to key into the epic production by, in effect, accessing the "pages" of this video text in the same manner that yesterday's students flipped through a history textbook.

What makes public broadcasting's education, information, and outreach programming so effective is not the broadcast of a single program or series during the year. It is the rippling effect of those programs to touch human lives, to involve citizens at the local level in finding local solutions to national problems. For example, in 1990, Race to Save the Planet, an environmental awareness program funded by the Corporation and the Annenberg/CPB Project, had an impact that long outlived the original broadcast. Approximately 100,000 churches received materials to share with their patrons and congregations; 12,000 public libraries received activity guides, posters, and bibliographies; and community groups ranging from the American Association of Retired Persons to the National 4H Program distributed information to members with encouragement to organize discussion programs around the series.

The value of a history series such as The American Experience is not only that it is viewed regularly by millions of people each week, but that it encourages educators to use alternative methods

of teaching to bring the past vividly to life. By early January 1991, over 3,500 teachers had used the series in schools, with an estimated 254,000 students benefiting from the materials. In addition,

students in Maryland, Idaho, and Kentucky, enthused by the series, went out into their local neighborhoods and talked with older peopel to learn the history of their communities. In fact, students in Washington County, Kentucky, went so far as to write the history of their community down as a result of those talks. All this was triggered by the use of The American Experience in the classroom.

Recognizing the potential to maximize the level of service public broadcasting provides, CPB, with strong support from the public broadcasting system, began to examine the possibilities for redirecting and expanding public broadcasting's capacity and ability to improve education services. CPB is pursuing ways to develop programming and delivery mechanisms that combine the substantial experience and capacity of public broadcasting with that of the business and education communities. This effort links the need of American businesses to have a competitive, well-educated workforce with the ability of public telecommunications to develop and deliver high-quality, low-cost education programming to students anywhere in the United States.

Using this input, and with the help of several key public broadcasting organizations and stations, CPB has designed a multi-year plan to expand significantly the role of public broadcasting in developing and delivering new educational programs and services. The plan utilizes public broadcasting's accumulated experience and infrastructure as a foundation from which public broadcasting will be able to make a significant, cost-effective contribution to American education in the 1990s, and which focuses on the following goals, initially emphasizing the first three:

developing a comprehensive package of instructional and motivational materials for use by pre-school children while in the care of day care providers and at home;

developing a collection of instructional services aimed at improving student and teacher skills in math and science using all appropriate technologies;

developing and maintaining a comprehensive effort to make Americans aware of, and to encourage their participation in solving, local and national education problems, including encouraging their commitment to develop and sustain high-quality, drug-free school systems in their communities;

leveraging all existing technologies, and new ones as they are proven effective, to assure that state-of-the-art tools are being used to address critical education issues;

developing programming that supports a kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum (i.e., K-12) that will utilize the most advanced instructional models available, including emerging applications of technology to instructional programming such as videodisc to ensure the highest possible return on investment;

producing programming which educates and informs the American people about issues affecting them and their world and prepares them to be better citizens;

developing comprehensive, in-service training for teachers to ensure that they bring the most current information in their field into the classroom regardless of their schools' financial resources or geographic location;

developing a universally available literacy program that guarantees free, accessible literacy training for any American who wants it; and,

using public telecommunications resources to develop and deliver job skills retraining to ensure that America's labor force has the resources to learn new skills to compete in today's international labor market.

With adequate resources, public broadcasting can use its communications capabilities in cooperation with business and education to help reverse the downward trend in academic achievement and reinvigorate America's education system. In short, public broadcasting can quickly reach through geographic and institutional barriers to provide inexpensive access to educational programming in schools and workplaces, as well as homes and automobiles. However, for this effort to be successful, federal support for the Public Telecommunications-For-Education Fund is crucial.

THE CONTINUED NEED FOR A STRONG INVESTMENT IN GENERAL SUPPORT Critical to the initiative's success, however, is a system that is financially sound and technically capable of producing the programming and services outlined in this initiative. Thus, federal support for the education initiative can be effective only if your continued investment in general operations is assured.

We use the word "investment" because the commitment of public funds to public broadcasting provides a much greater return in terms of benefit to the public good for each dollar spent. Public broadcasting is a partnership between the federal government and local public service entities that bring many more dollars to the partnership than the federal government provides.

CPB Identifies, Develops, and Supports Unparalleled Programming

The core of public broadcasting's service is its hallmark television and radio programs which are widely received. The "product" of public broadcasting is the effect that these programs have on their viewers -- the knowledge they gain, the imagination that is stimulated, and the new possibilities they encounter and consider.

Today, the most important task of CPB is to ensure the production of excellent educational, cultural, and public affairs programs. Our differentiation from other sources of programming lies in the level of excellence we obtain, and also in the uniqueness of our subject matter. Long recognized for its unsurpassed quality, the programming provided by public broadcasting remains unobtainable on any consistent basis commercially. This programming includes: stirring documentaries about our heritage (The Civil War and Eyes on the Prize I and II); in-depth and incisive news (public television's The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and public radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition); children's programming that continues to enjoy the trust of millions of parents (Sesame Street, DeGrassi High, Reading Rainbow, and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood); and programming that successfully utilizes the full educational potential of television (Square One TV and 3-2-1 Contact). While all public broadcasting is commercial-free, this unique aspect is especially beneficial to our

young viewers who can concentrate and learn without being interrupted by thousands of commercials every year.

In public radio programming, CPB supports a wide range of projects including Marketplace, a daily magazine-style program of international business, finance, and the economy that relates the impact of international commerce on listeners' lives; Images of the 20th Century, an 18-month research and development project about 20th century American history intended to present audio essays on cross-generational and multicultural perspectives of U.S. politics, economics, technology, and culture; and Western Horizons, a series on the people of the rural regions of the nation's Mountain West whose lives are shaped by the vast territory in which they work and live.

Just recently, when CPB recognized that stations were hard-pressed financially to support National Public Radio's (NPR) round-the-clock war coverage, the Corporation provided NPR with substantial funding to continue expanded coverage of the Persian Gulf War. During the hostilities, NPR was hailed as the "CNN of radio" because of its exhaustive reporting on the war. NPR's nationally acclaimed coverage included town meetings, overnight newcasts, and call-in shows, and caused an increase in programming from 18 to 24 hours daily, thereby pushing it one-third over its monthly budget.

In addition, public broadcasting brings the theater, opera, and drama to inner-cities and rural communities, in many cases to people who would otherwise be unable to experience them. More people saw the opera, The Ring Cycle, in one broadcast on public television than had ever seen it, in total, since Wagner wrote it. We sensitize public awareness of major social concerns with programming covering such critical issues as childcare, literacy, AIDS, and the environment. More important, public telecommunications is an investment because it yields a hefty return-to-the-public in the form of its strengths: educational services, local and national service, and diverse programming that reflects the entire fabric of America's racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage.

CPB assists public radio and television stations to respond to their local needs by providing nearly two-thirds of its federal appropriation through Community Service Grants, which go directly to local stations and enable stations to acquire or produce programming. With CPB funds known ahead of time because of the Corporation's advance appropriations, stations can build budgets that attract additional local funding to support programming in tune with the needs and concerns of their communities, thus allowing a greater return on the federal investment.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING IS A TRULY NATIONAL SERVICE

It is important to note that public broadcasting yields more than programmatic and educational returns. CPB appropriations also enable us to help develop such technologies as the use of closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired; spur the development of the Descriptive Video Service

38-710 O 91 - 14