For the ninth year in a row, public television has ranked as the most trusted institution in America, trumping all other forms of media, the courts and the federal government.

This news comes after a bruising year for public media. In 2011, members of Congress (which, incidentally, is the least trusted institution in America) took aim at funding for public broadcasting, and many states slashed funds for local stations. Misinformation and attacks about public media were rampant. And yet independent researchers found that even in this climate and even in the face of continued economic struggles, public TV ranked second only to military defense as an “excellent” use of tax dollars. In fact, more than 70 percent of Americans see funding for public television as money “well spent.”

These results should send a strong message to members of Congress. It is increasingly becoming politically risky to meddle with the independence and funding of our public media. Last year millions of people wrote Congress and thousands others made phone calls to tell their lawmakers to protect funding for public media.

Since then, we have seen mergers across the radio market and big media companies abandoning local communities. Corporations have struck sneaky backroom deals to share content among TV newsrooms, and commercial TV stations have broadcast fake news bought and paid for by advertisers.

Given the state of commercial media, the need for quality public media has never been greater. And this week’s survey suggests that public TV is rising to the challenge. The survey results indicate that PBS programming improves literacy rates and provides superior coverage of the arts, science, history, social issues and other subjects.

Finally, PBS is still seen as a critical resource for safe and educational programming for children.

Why, after almost a decade of these kinds of survey results, are we still debating whether to publicly fund public media?

Compared to other nations, U.S. spending on public media is literally pocket change — 80 times less than the amount spent in the highest-funded European nations. And research suggests that with the right protections in place, an increase in funding would only strengthen the journalism, arts and educational content available on public media. NYU Professor Rodney Benson’s survey of 14 other democratic nations and their public media systems illustrates this point. In every case examined in his study, public media provide more and higher-quality public affairs programming and a greater diversity of genres and unique perspectives than their commercial counterparts.

It’s time for Congress to listen to the American people and support public media.

If you care about the future of public media, please donate to the Free Press Action Fund. Thank you.