In 1969, my mother started her teaching career in the South Bronx. If you want to picture what the area looked like then, imagine every image you've seen of Detroit's decline and add random tire fires, roving packs of feral dogs, and violence. It was as bad as New York ever got. But that didn't stop my mom from teaching there, giving away her winter scarves and gloves to students in need, or even trying to adopt one of her students out of a life of abuse. She knew that the only hope her first graders had of surviving was in the free education she dedicated herself to giving them.

That same year, Sesame Street debuted, and my mom's class watched the first episode on the school's only TV set. Years later, after I was born and watching Sesame Street myself, she'd often tell me about that day and how happy the kids were to see New York City children of diverse backgrounds like themselves on TV. It made them pay attention to and learn from the show, she said.

With PBS, the revolution was televised. Free educational programs for every age—but particularly children—could reach everyone, no matter their economic status.

Now HBO is moving Sesame Street and all its residents to its own, paid network—a network that, on my middle-class salary, I opt not to get because it's too much of a strain on my budget.

There are benefits to the deal, including more shows filmed per year. It's also undoubtedly a huge relief for Sesame Workshop, which produces the show and has suffered greatly from an audience that's shifted from broadcast viewing to streaming. Yes, the shows will air on PBS but only nine months after they've aired on HBO. So far it is unclear if and when episodes will stream for free on the PBS app like they will on HBO GO or HBO Now.

Technology has changed television in a way that has left PBS much like the Bronx in the 60s. It's economically depressed and now losing one of the key properties that was keeping the neighborhood together. For its part, Sesame Street is getting gentrified, the results of which can often be ugly. In this case, it tells children who come from lower-income families that they're not equal to kids whose parents can afford HBO. Of all the lessons Sesame Street can teach children who don't come from privilege, the notion that they'll be subject to a lifetime of injustice because of income inequality shouldn't be one of them.

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