In a state racing to pass as many anti-library and anti-education bills as possible in a single legislative session, cutting Dolly Parton’s much-beloved Imagination Library from the budget may be most indicative of the desire to create an illiterate–and therefore dependent–citizenship.
Imagination Library is a book-gifting program that sends children from birth to age five free books every single month. The program launched in 1995 and serves children in all 50 states, as well as children in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Indiana allocated $1.6 million for the Imagination Library program in the 2023-2024 budget and $2.5 million in the 2024-2025 year. This accounts for 50% of the cost to run the program, with the remaining cost fulfilled by local United Way chapters. The state budget for 2025 is $51.3 billion dollars, making cuts like these about the cruelty, rather than about any cost-saving measures.
The Imagination Library program has been cited as part of why Indiana’s child literacy rates have increased from 19th to 6th nationwide. Research shows that the greatest predictor for childhood reading achievement in low-income households is access to print materials. This is precisely the role the Imagination Library fulfills by automatically sending books on a monthly basis to all those 5 and under enrolled in the program.
Just this January, Indiana’s Governor Eric Holcomb bragged about the impact of the program on the state. He wrote, “One of these days, Dolly Parton will pay us a visit to celebrate the statewide embrace of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, another tool to help our kids read.”
Cuts like this directly impact young people statewide. It is yet another attack on the rights of young people to learn and read, all under the guise of fixing the budget. Programs like these are not about Dolly, nor are they about the good work she’s done to help provide goods to young people. It’s about the young people being denied the right to learn to read and being denied the right to continue seeing their reading and test-taking skills improve due to their access to print material.
If you’re an Indiana resident, get on the phones and into the inboxes of your state representatives in the House and Senate. Write and call the governor’s office, citing his own words back at him to oppose cuts such as these. Find your elected officials here.
Between a bill that would kill public libraries through a new tax scheme, the bill on deck to destroy public school districts in the state, and this, it is clear that Indiana legislators are eager to deny independence, literacy, and bright futures to their youngest and most vulnerable population.
