The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television was established in November, 1965, for the purpose of studying existing non-commercial television operations in the United States -- including technical, organizational, financial, and programming aspects -- and formulating proposals for future development. Rather than concentrating solely upon stations involved with instructional programming, the Commission placed its emphasis upon community-owned stations and their service to the general public.

The first calls for this study of educational television came with a December, 1964, conference of the Educational Television Stations division of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and the United States Office of Education. Subsequently, C. Scott Fletcher, executive consultant of the ETS-NAEB, invited Robert Lowell, of the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council, to form a committee to draft a proposal for a study. The Carnegie Corporation, presented with the proposal, agreed to sponsor the study with a $500,000 grant.

The creation of the Commission was generally well-received. President Johnson extended special praise, offering his help in the implementation of any recommendations for strengthening public television. The commission was also fortunate in the selection of its membership. All were distinguished and well-known figures, with James R. Killian, chairman of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as Commission chairman.

The Carnegie Commission spent fourteen months in fulfillment of its task. It held eight formal conferences and several smaller meetings, interviewed a number of individuals and institutional representatives, and solicited reports from staff and outside experts. In addition, Commission representatives visited ninety-two of the more than one hundred and twenty non-commercial educational television stations in the United States and surveyed television operations in seven foreign countries.

The Commission's report, Public Television: A Plan For Action, was published in January, 1967. It cited the poor condition of public television broadcasting and pointed to the need for increasing the number of stations and their funding. Among the many recommendations of the Commission were those for the creation of a Corporation for Public Television (CPTV), to serve as a clearinghouse for public and private funds, and the imposition of an excise tax on television sets to increase the amount of available funds.

The Carnegie Commission received a great deal of praise for its work. The scope and depth of its study was unique. Although opposition developed over the tax on television sets, the Commission did help to stimulate interest in public television. This interest increaed as the Ford Foundation launched the Public Broadcasting Laboratory with a $10 million grant in the spring of 1967. The support of President Johnson and others (e.g. Frank Stanton, president of CBS, who promised $1 million once the proposed CPTV received a charter) helped to secure passage of legislation in November of 1967, creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The papers of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television contain correspondence, reports, proceedings of conferences and meetings, surveys, financial and statistical data, news articles, tape recordings, and related material. Although there is significant documentation of Commission activities, it is not complete. The collection is divided into six series: correspondence; meetings and conferences; surveys of educational television; Carnegie Commission report; and publicity and presentations.

The CORRESPONDENCE series covers the period from November, 1965 to October, 1967. It includes a letter dated September 26, 1966 from E. B. White and xerox copies of letters from Lyndon Baines Johnson and Frank Stanton dated November 8, 1965 and January 27, 1967, respectively. The MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES series documents some Commission gatherings. This documentation includes a tape recording of a November, 1966, conference (a guide to the recording is located with the register in Box 1 of the collection) and minutes and related material concerning other conferences, meetings, and visits of invited guests. Generally, however, the documentation is poor for both the staff meetings and the more formal conferences. The REPORTS series, in addition to some monthly reports of the staff (only February and March, 1966, are represented), holds papers prepared by the Commission staff and outside experts on the many aspects of educational television then under study. Only those papers which were not published with the final report are included here.

The major part of the SURVEYS OF EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION series is made up of reports of staff visits to sixty-five non-commercial television stations in the United States. The reports contain the personal responses and opinions of the representatives concerning station operations. (Arrangement is alphabetical by the individual who made the visit.) The balance of the series has statistical and financial data on educational television authorities and stations; documentation of Commission support of a Brandeis University study of educational television programming, April, 1966; and a survey of educational opportunities for potential television writers. The annual reports, 1963-1965, of the educational television stations are closed to research until 1980.

The CARNEGIE COMMISSION REPORT series has early drafts of the report, as well as comments by Commission members and staff on those drafts and the final, published, version. The PUBLICITY AND PRESENTATIONS series contains news articles, a tape recording of a press conference, speeches, and other presentations, including testimony before the United States Senate and House of Representatives, concerning the Commission recommendations. Most of the presentations are by James R. Killian, chairman of the Commission.