Among the prescriptions for improving children's school readiness is a call for television to lead the way through the provision of ready-to-learn programing and services for the nation's preschoolers. No single element of a national ready-to-learn service will have a greater impact on its effectiveness than the programing it airs. Three approaches to delivering a national ready-to-learn television service from public broadcasting are explored, along with a fourth, fall-back option, as follows: (1) universal access, with at least one public station providing uninterrupted daily ready-to-learn broadcasting each day; (2) national cable feed, with an uninterrupted ready-to-learn service to cable systems throughout the country; (3) local hybrid, in which each local public television station would determine how best to configure and deliver ready-to-learn services; and (4) existing schedule, which would add additional programing to the current schedules. The first option is identified as offering the greatest benefit to the greatest number of children. Estimated costs associated with each aspect of the ready-to-learn service are discussed. Two figures illustrate the discussion. Appendix 1 lists specific readiness skills. Appendix 2 lists the project's academic advisors. (Contains 54 footnotes.) (SLD)