PBS Pride of ‘Lions’ at Risk

George W. Bush is the “education president.” Laura Bush is the “literacy” first lady. And the White House continually vows to “leave no child behind.”

Yet the administration’s massive education funding bill, now hurtling through Congress, may kill a nationally distributed children’s television program, one of the few such shows with research to show it helps disadvantaged kids learn to read.

No one actually wants to kill the show called “Between the Lions,” which features a pride of lion puppets working in a library. But it may be a victim of the law of unintended consequences.

“It’s a positive program that helps kids learn to read,” says Bob Chase, president of the National Education Assn., the largest teachers union in the country. “I don’t know what more you could ask for in a television program.”

Indeed, last-minute efforts are underway--with quiet blessings from the White House--to restore the federal allotment that producers say is critical to keeping “Lions” on the air. The show now gets about $4 million a year, part of $16 million allocated to the Public Broadcasting Service for educational shows to help poor kids under a program called Ready to Learn. That’s pin money in the $18-billion budget proposed for K-12 education next year.

But “Lions” is caught in a larger struggle: The Bush administration wants to return power to the grass roots by eliminating earmarked federal programs in favor of bloc grants that local officials can spend as they wish. And proponents of bloc grants fear that an exception for “Lions” and similar programs might open a Pandora’s box.

“I don’t think you’ll find anyone who doesn’t see some value in ‘Lions,’ ” said Rep. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.), a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee. The House committee began reviewing the omnibus education bill last week. And by late Thursday, Republicans and Democrats had forged an agreement--approved by Bush aides--that would preserve funding for “Lions” and a handful of related programs.

That agreement is a first step. But similar efforts in the Senate appear to have bogged down. And final votes in the House and Senate are weeks away.

“Lions” and Ready to Learn, which also funds local workshops to help parents encourage their kids to read, are almost totally dependent on federal support. “There’s no way of replacing this money through the private sector or any other sources,” said Jinny Goldstein, senior vice president for education at PBS.

What sets “Lions” apart is that it was designed in consultation with experts at the National Institutes of Health to take advantage of accumulating research on the complex process by which most children learn to read.

“ ‘Between the Lions’ is clearly one of the best examples of a group that did its homework,” says G. Reid Lyon, chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at NIH and an advisor to the president. “They came to NIH several years ago and went through the research on how kids learn to read. They made sure they had it right.”

The goal of Ready to Learn and shows such as “Lions” is to “leverage the power and reach of public broadcasting to be able to get high quality educational children’s programming” into the homes of low-income children before they reach school age, Goldstein said.

An early study of the show by researchers at the University of Kansas has shown significant gains in reading readiness for at-risk kindergarten students.

According to Deborah L. Linebarger, lead researcher on the KU study, groups of young students in three urban schools in Kansas City were tested before and after watching “Lions” episodes daily over a period of about a month before the show went on the air in April 2000. Their scores were compared to control groups of similar children who did not see the programs.

Across the board, Linebarger said, children who had seen the program showed significantly greater progress. “For a show to be able to do this is incredibly powerful, because it can get into homes where they don’t have books.”