Would you Donate $10 to Save L.A.’s ‘Education Channel?’

KLCS-TV, the LAUSD-owned PBS affiliate that broadcasts such programs as “Homework Hotline” and “College Buzz”—along with Sesame Street and Downtown Abbey—launched its first-ever fund-raising drive with celebrity backing Monday in an appeal to the public to donate $10 by texting five letters that stand for “LA City Schools.”

The letters—KLCS—texted to 80888 will help the popular educational channel avert a $1.4-million shortfall in its 2012-13 budget, reports the Los Angeles Daily News.

Starting sometime this week, according to the report, the 40-year-old channel will intersperse broadcasts of its regular educational fare with clips of celebrities and athletes such as actor Kevin McKidd (Grey's Anatomy) and L.A. Lakers' A.C. Green appealing to the public to reach for their wallets via their smart phones.

The educational channel is expecting to raise $100,000 by November, when it is scheduled to launch a full-fledged pledge, the report says. Donations can also be made by clicking this link.

Clearly displaying the kind of entrepreneurial savvy for which nonprofit groups are becoming increasingly known, KLCS has used grant money to hire “Hollywood insider” Steven Wishnoff, who described KLCS as "the last PBS station in L.A." in a Twitter message Monday. Wishnoff told Patch the fundraising campaign was officially launched Monday, April 23, and that within a span of three hours that day he met with noted TV writer Bruce Vilanch and actors Bob Bergen and Erin Murphy.

Hired as development director at a salary of $3,400 a month, Wishnoff has “persuaded a slate of performers and athletes to tape pitches that will be sandwiched between KLCS programs,” reports the Daily News.

Read the full Daily News story here.

And tell us in the Comments below if you think reading about this campaign encourages you to find out more—or if you feel as though you're ready to text and give.