Imagine trying to find a way to inject a serious discussion about the shape and future of American education into the current presidential campaign.
Can you say “thankless task”?
But that’s not stopping PBS, which is marshalling forces Sept. 12-17 for a series of 11 prime-time programs on the subject.
“There’s a need for a larger conversation about education in this country, and we just don’t see anyone else doing it,” says PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger. “We’re hoping to focus enough attention that when there are debates, this subject could be swept into the conversation.”
Kerger tacitly acknowledges there are hotter topics, but none, she says, are more important.
“The future of our country is about us having an informed and engaged citizenry,” she says. “Our education system today will also be shaping the workforce of the future.”
PBS’s week, called Spotlight Education, begins Monday (10 p.m. ET) with the POV special All the Difference (left), following two Chicago teenagers as they try to defy the statistics and make it to college.
Tuesday’s Frontline (9 p.m. ET) features two films, A Subprime Education and The Education of Omarina, which examine the difficulties of for-profit colleges and an innovative program that helped one student navigate the college system.
Wednesday’s Nova (9 p.m. ET) looks at different places education could be going in School of the Future.
On Thursday PBS will air Craft in America: Teachers at 8 p.m. ET and Time for School, about five students from other countries trying to get the kind of education Americans often take for granted, at 9 p.m. ET.
As this lineup suggests, PBS is focusing on real-people stories rather than talking-head forums. Kerger also points to an Anna Deavere Smith program on “the repercussions of failed education.”
This is a particularly interesting and challenging time in education, Kerger says, “because we’re still figuring it out.
“Colleges are looking at a changing way of talking about education. You have students looking for a different experience than just going away to college and getting a degree. Then there are all the online opportunities.”
So contemporary education in some ways has become “a work in progress,” she says, though she adds that certain “very simple and basic” fundamentals still apply – like the need for encouragement and support at all levels.
“Kids consistently do better,” she says, “if they feel that someone cares about them.”
She also says technology hasn’t changed many of the fundamental measurements of education, like high school graduation rates – which she notes have quietly been creeping up.
Education has been something PBS has pushed for a long time, Kerger says, noting the success of the PBS Kids programming and the planned launch in January of a 24/7 PBS Kids channel, which will be available both on broadcast and online.
She says PBS is concerned that in an age of exploding technology, “There are still many families that have limited or no Internet access. We want to serve them as well.”
PBS works extensively with teachers, Kerger notes, many of whom use PBS material in their classrooms. Toward that end, PBS produces educational content “in shorter forms,” so it can be incorporated into classroom lessons.
One of the hardest parts of talking about education, of course, is just getting people to listen, because those who don’t have kids in school often don’t pay much attention.
“Education affects everything, including the economy,” says Kerger. “We hope our Spotlight can help bring the issue to the public.
“It’s not spinach.”
There’s also one other issue, by the way, whose absence from the current election campaign Kerger doesn’t mind at all.
In campaigns as recent as four years ago, public broadcasting itself was a target, with some candidates calling for termination of its federal funding.
“You never want to be in a political debate,” Kerger says. “People have tried to politicize us, but as I’ve said all along, we have strong support on both sides of the aisle. I’ll be happy if this time we’re kept out of it.”