Time to Defund Sesame Street?

Well, here's that point of agreement with Mitt Romney I requested, thanks to Emily Goff:

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/14/why-big-birds-federal-subsides-need-to-go/

"Sesame Street" has been around since I was in primary school. Back then, many educators thought all television was counterproductive to the learning process, and TV programs especially for four- and five-year-olds were bad things...intellectual junkfood.

(I liked "Sesame Street" and watched it whenever my family was in a place where I could watch it; I even enjoyed watching it with kids I baby-sat in high school. Of course, that was when Ernie and Bert were being played as brothers...For kids like me who could already read, "Sesame Street" was still supposedly counterproductive. I don't know. I didn't watch enough TV to damage my eyes.)

By now, it's been shown that "Sesame Street" programming does help four- and five-year-olds, most of whom don't yet see well enough to read, absorb the concepts of reading and phonics. And some other concepts that may need some remedial attention, for some children, like sharing, saying "please," and treating even real weirdos like Oscar and Big Bird as respected members of the community.

So, as our economy declines and our federal budget has to be cut, why does "Sesame Street" need federal funding? Private sponsors know it's been a good show for an incredible forty years. Private sponsors can sponsor infinite reruns if they don't like where the new writers take the show. Why not let a private sponsor pick up "Sesame Street," and cut that item out of the federal budget?