Alabama doesn’t get to be first very often. But when it came to public educational television, we weren’t just first—we were the model other states scrambled to follow.

In 1953, while much of the country was still treating television like a novelty, Alabama created the Alabama Educational Television Commission. Two years later, we launched what is recognized as the nation’s first statewide educational television network. That happened before PBS existed, before the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and before the federal government created any national framework for public media.

Alabama—the state so often dismissed by national commentators—was once a pioneer in public education through broadcasting.

For 70 years, this system has done exactly what it was created to do: bring learning, cu

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