LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky lawmakers restored funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library weeks after a draft of the state budget bill aimed to reduce the state's contribution.
The beloved initiative founded by Parton mails a new book each month to children from birth to age 5. Right now, only about half of Kentucky’s eligible children are signed up — about 140,000 kids.
More than 80% of the program's county-level chapters would have been forced to shut down had the budget been passed with that decrease in funding, the organization said. But state Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, said in final budget negotiations the outcry over changes to the program was heard, and the final budget draft was changed.
"The full funding with the existing match of 50 percent is in the budget ... also with additional language trying to increase the participation for low-income and foster care communities," McDaniel said.
Earlier this month, state Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, introduced a resolution calling on state agencies to find new ways to boost enrollment — especially among children in foster care, low-income families and communities where participation has lagged.
"We are so grateful to our lawmakers for restoring our funding match and providing early literacy impact by recognizing enrollment opportunities for children, ages birth through five, who need the program most," Libby Suttles, state director of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Kentucky, said in a news release Tuesday. "We will work harder than ever to partner with them in every way possible in the future."Â
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