Networks Still Failing in Kids’ Programs, Study Says : Television: Educational shows are relegated to fringe viewing hours and shoestring budgets, Center for Media Education finds.

Network television doesn’t make the grade when it comes to meeting a federal requirement to air educational programs for children, according to a new study presented to Congress on Friday.

Educational TV programs such as “Real News for Kids” and “CityKids” are either made on shoestring budgets that amount to less than one-tenth the cost of prime-time fare, or are relegated to fringe viewing hours not accessible to the young viewing audience the programs are supposed to reach, according to the study by the Center for Media Education, a Washington-based advocacy organization.

“We found that most of the programs created in response to the Children’s Television Act have been assigned a second-class status in commercial television,” Kathryn C. Montgomery, president of the center, said at a hearing Friday before the House subcommittee on telecommunications and finance.

The criticism of children’s television programming resurrects a highly charged issue that has vexed the networks for more than two decades. Since the late 1960s, Action for Children’s Television and other groups have urged TV executives--traditionally driven by profits and ratings--to grant children special dispensation.

As in the past, lawmakers and critics focused their ire on the big commercial broadcast networks even though many experts say cable television, which now reaches nearly two-thirds of American homes, has a poorer children’s programming record than its network counterpart.

Indeed, NBC and Fox television executives who attended Friday’s hearing said commercial television has made substantial programming improvements since the passage of the Children’s Television Act.

“NBC, and the entire broadcasting industry, has come a long way since the act was adopted: from a schedule that consisted mainly of cartoons to a 2 1/2-hour block of high-quality, live-action programming specifically designed not only to entertain but to serve . . . educational and informational needs,” said Linda Mancuso, vice president for children’s and family programs at NBC.

The Children’s Television Act, which became effective Oct. 1, 1991, requires broadcasters to air educational children’s programming as a condition of getting their government-issued broadcast licenses renewed.

“While some quality shows have been created in direct response to the law . . . there is still much work to be done,” a National Education Assn. official, Rosanne Bacon, told the House panel.

But one subcommittee member, Rep. W.J. Tauzin (D-La.), argued that viewers are a better judge of children’s programming than politicians or even educators.

“In the end, the American public is the best judge of what television network is the best,” said Tauzin.

The Center for Media Education, which is spearheading a group of 15 consumer and child advocacy organizations seeking to convince Congress and the Federal Communications Commission that tougher measures are needed, wants the term educational programming more precisely defined and believes such programs should be regularly scheduled between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“It is because powerful marketplace forces work against children that we need effective public policies to counter them,” said Montgomery.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to review its children’s TV regulations later this month.