There probably wasn't a single holiday season where my siblings and I weren’t watching Sesame Street on Disney Junior or in the back seat of the car during long drives to visit family in other towns. We played with Sesame Street's toys, obnoxiously belting, "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas!" We watched PBS Kids shows, learnt our ABCs, how to be kind, and how to solve problems.

So last month, when the U.S. Department of Education quietly eliminated a major grant that funded these programs, it felt like my childhood was being erased.

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What Actually Happened

On May 1, an executive order told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the group that helps fund the educational programs we all had during our childhoods, to stop all support. The next day, the U.S. Department of Education notified PBS and NPR that the key grant Ready to Learn was being cut, effective immediately.

Over 30 years, the grant has helped fund some of the most iconic educational shows: Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and more. It provided the funds to create fun and educational content for kids, especially from low-income families, to develop their language and cognitive skills. And just like that, PBS and over 40 local stations across the country were told to shut it all down.

It doesn't stop there. A few days ago, the Trump administration officially requested that Congress withdraw more than $9 billion in funding, including $1.1 billion meant for public media like PBS and NPR. The administration then stated that PBS and NPR are “biased.”

Now, Congress has less than 45 days to make a decision. If they approve it, public media will lose that money, and it will hit small towns and low-income areas the hardest, where families rely on free educational shows and local radio.

PBS and NPR have both filed lawsuits, saying these actions violate the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and the press.

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Is This About Money?

For a lot of families, PBS is their only option. Not everyone has Wi-Fi. Not everyone has Netflix.

Not every child gets to attend a private school or has shelves full of books. For millions of children, PBS is their teacher, their babysitter, and their bedtime story.

A lot of people believe this isn’t just about budget cuts, but about controlling education. Shows like Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow have always openly discussed diversity, emotions, fairness, and learning to stand up for yourself. Some view that as “too political.” Others see that as exactly what education should be.

If you’ve read Fahrenheit 451, you might remember a world where books were banned, knowledge was dangerous, and the government controlled everything people were allowed to know. Honestly, it’s starting to feel a little too close to that. After all, the same administration is pushing to ban international students from attending U.S. schools and has pushed policies that restrict curriculum around race, gender, and history.

Maybe the target is not just Elmo or Clifford. Maybe it's to silence free, educational, and trusted content, because when kids stop learning to question things, people in power eventually stop being questioned at all.