Kansas reinstates funding for state PBS programming after cuts amid concerns over LGBTQ+ documentary

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A week after a Kansas Senate committee cut funding from the state’s PBS network, the committee reversed its decision, maintaining the allotted budget for the public broadcaster. The initial cut came after a state senator criticized some of the channel’s programming and called for a complete elimination of funding.  

Key Players

State Sen. Caryn Tyson (R) represents the state’s 12th District, encompassing a number of counties in southeast Kansas.  

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), a nonprofit organization that provides free television programming through public funding and donations, has three branches in Kansas: Wichita, Topeka, and the Smoky Hills region. Typically, the state has allocated $500,000 a year to the Kansas Public Broadcasting Council, which then divides that funding between four TV stations and five radio stations, including the PBS branches. 

Further Details

In 2023, both the Wichita and Topeka PBS stations aired a documentary entitled “No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate In Kansas,” which depicted LGBTQ+ Kansans fighting for equal rights in their state. The film was based on a book from the University Press of Kansas and was directed by Kevin Willmott, an Academy Award-winning director. 

Although Topeka and Kansas City PBS stations aired the film, they did not fund “No Place like Home,” nor did public donors. 

However, during a meeting of the State Senate commerce committee on Feb. 7, 2024, to allocate the state’s department of commerce budget, Tyson called for a total cut in funding to public broadcasting, blaming a specific show for her drastic stance that “completely offended” her. She did not give its name. 

Specifically, Tyson decried how the unnamed show criticized her fellow State Sen. Renee Erickson (R), whose district includes part of Wichita, and argued that it was an example of public funds being misused for political reasons. “I was just completely distraught over what they did and how they are using their microphone for negative promotion,” Tyson said at the Feb. 7 hearing. 

On Feb. 8, Tyson elaborated further. “We have the hammer, and I’m going to swing this hammer in a large way,” she said. 

The next day, the commerce committee rejected her proposal to eliminate all funds, to which she countered with a motion for a 10% reduction in funding. The vote on the new motion resulted in a tie, and Erickson, the chair of the commerce committee, cast the tiebreaker in favor of cutting funds. 

The committee members who voted against the motion, which included other Republicans, criticized Tyson’s proposal, asserting that gutting public broadcasting would take a valuable service away from Kansans and silence Free Speech. 

Although Tyson never officially cited “No Place Like Home” as the film at the center of the conflict, Val VanDerSluis, the general manager of the PBS branch in Topeka, confirmed with the Kansas Reflector that it was in fact the documentary that angered Tyson. VanDerSluis spoke to Tyson after the original commerce committee hearing, where she reportedly had a “very good dialogue” with VanDerSluis that cleared up “some misunderstandings on the broadcast of the documentary.” 

In a Senate ways and means Committee hearing the following week, neither Tyson nor Erickson revealed the name of the program.

Outcome 

Senate committee rejects budget cut

On Feb. 14, during the ways and means committee meeting, lawmakers voted on the commerce committee’s budget proposals, and the senators criticized both the funding cut and the reasoning for it. They rejected the 10% decrease, kept the $500,000 budget, and agreed to revisit and potentially increase funding. 

Members of the committee highlighted the diversity of viewpoints, including conservative voices, in PBS programming and the important educational role the public channel plays in Kansas.