ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - With the Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission (SMCTC) announcing its decision to make cuts to public media programs by the end of the 2025-2026 fiscal year, hundreds of students and adults involved in these public access channels and media broadcasting programs are scrambling to come up with a solution. 

By cutting funding for these programs, opportunities for student expression are being lost, and teachers are worried about their media programs in the long run. In March, the commission cut the budget of all access channels except Metro 14 by 50% for the last quarter of the fiscal year.

“But we don’t know what they’re thinking of regarding our budget for this next fiscal year,” said Aaron Heinrich, the executive director of the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium (SECC), which provides funding, media education, training and equipment to all K-12 media educators in Sacramento County. “If we get half of what would normally get for a year, we’ll have a very difficult time sustaining the work we do now.”

Originally supposed to come to a consensus on what the budget would look like in September, SMCTC pushed the meeting until December. However, on Dec. 4, 2025, the meeting ended shortly before two organizations, SECC and Access Sacramento, were scheduled to make a presentation on the value of their programs.

Heinrich, who said his biggest focus continues to be providing teachers and students with materials and equipment, is working on possible solutions to gain more funding.

“The biggest importance (of any student media program) is that it’s giving not just the teachers the opportunity to teach, but it’s giving (teachers and students) an opportunity to learn about media in all kinds of ways, all the different jobs that it takes to put a media production together,” Heinrich said. “And at the same time, (students are) learning how media actually works.”

Heinrich said the cut in funding came as a surprise.

“Six days before the September meeting is when we found out that they were going to talk about cutting our budget all the way down to the point that by August of 2026 we would be defunded,” he said. “They were going to decrease our budget by about 30% every quarter until there was no money to fund us.”

Heinrich said a big chunk of the money is going toward Metro 14, the government access channel.

“Even if they defund us and Access Sacramento, they can still keep that government channel alive,” he said. “That basically solves the issue of keeping public, open transparency with public meetings, it still keeps an informed citizenry relative to the public meetings that Metro 14 would carry.”

With the budget future unclear, Heinrich said he still plans to pursue additional funding.

“We don’t know what the budget looks like, but we’re still moving forward because we believe that there’s enough opportunity for us to work together,” he said, adding that part of the focus is “getting people, citizen journalists and students, out there telling stories about the community, filling that void that local media can’t.”

Heinrich said there are different ways the community can help.

“We can’t do this without community support,” he said. “Because we are a nonprofit, we can take donations, and we do have it set up for us to be able to take donations so people feel like they want to be able to help students continue to have a voice and express their voice and learn how to be good journalists.

“We would appreciate that support, then anything people can do to continue to write county supervisors, their city council folks, to support our continued funding, that’s also helpful.”

One school that takes advantage of SECC funding and support is Franklin High in Elk Grove; 60 or so students participate in media classes and programs, and they use equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Dawn Williams, an Advanced Broadcast Production teacher for 24 years at Franklin, said she continues to fight for the future of media programs, but she is disappointed in having to do so.

“The equipment we use here is industry standard, and that equipment provides an incredible hands-on experience for all of my students to utilize and show what it’s like to use these tools in a real-world situation,” Williams said. “It’s these situations that prepare students for college and careers outside of high school.”

Williams said media programs require significant financial support, and the potential loss of SECC funding is a significant potential problem.

“The school itself cannot sustain or supplement anything that happens here,” she said. “We have been lucky to have SECC’s help and support for the last 10 years to help me bridge the gap in funding either from the state and federal funding grant, but the school itself cannot sustain a program like this.”

Franklin students have gone on to successful media careers, using their knowledge from their high school media program.

“Some of the students that have come through this program now have worked in the NFL, NBA and local news channels,” Williams said. “Some have even gone on to be doctors or lawyers, but they’ve taken those experiences working collaboratively here solving problems, understanding deadlines, and just an overall experience of working with others to their next level outside of high school – and those lessons and those opportunities are priceless.”

Williams said she is disheartened by the potential future of scholastic media programs.

“I’m very sad that all of the hard work I have put in for the last 10-plus years to make this program what it is is now, is going to just be just kind of sewed up, and if you will, closed,” she said. “This chapter will be dark, and at some point, our studio will go dark.”

Franklin senior Arlo Cottrell has been involved in Franklin’s media program and pathway for all four years of high school.

“I didn’t know that we would be completely defunded, but when I found out, it really sucked because I had lots of good memories in my media classes,” he said. “It’s scary knowing that the future generations will not be able to get that because of our new budgeting.”

Cotrell has had lots of unforgettable media moments.

“I’ve created friendships that lasted all throughout high school and gained new social skills, such as being in front of the camera, and even technical skills, like being behind the camera and directing shows,” Cottrell said.

Even though the program faces the possibility of complete defunding, he hopes it’s still possible to change people’s minds about the future of public access media programs.

“To whoever’s defunding us, I want them to think about the student experiences they’re taking away,” Cottrell said. “Think about the friendship bonds, formed around people who share the same interests and motivation, and tactical skills that are being stripped from children that are just getting into adolescence and want to get to know the real world.

“So many students have gained important knowledge that we’ll never forget in the future. It makes me deeply upset knowing that people after us won’t have that opportunity.”