The state of Missouri will halt all new enrollment in Dolly Parton’s childhood literacy program, Imagination Library, on July 1, 2026, after the GOP-controlled state legislature slashed funding from $6 million to $2 million.
Parton's Imagination Library mails one free book a month to children from birth to age 5. Republicans decided the program will receive $2 million in state funding for fiscal year 2027.
It's a marked change from 2024, when Parton joined former Republican Governor Mike Parson to celebrate Missouri becoming the first state in the country to fully fund her literacy program.
At the time, Parton stated:
"It makes me happy to think that I'm giving them a gift that matters to them, and it makes me happy to know that I've made them feel special."
The books subReddit had thoughts on why Missouri’s GOP targeted Parton’s childhood literacy program for cuts.
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Many cited the Republican Party's decades-long attacks on any form of free, publicly available education.
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Lucas Bond, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education communications director, addressed the cuts, stating:
"We are unsure of the future of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Missouri as a state-funded program. Partnering with local programs could be a potential in the future with time, funding, and partnerships coordination."
Angela Sears Spittal, executive director of the Ready Readers literacy program, responded to the cuts, saying:
"We know that when kids have 20 or more books in their home, research says they go three years farther in school.
"If we only have about 20% of children in low-income communities reading at an age-appropriate level, I think it's fair to say we're in a literacy crisis. So to see funding pulled back from that is heartbreaking."
In 2025, Missouri’s state-funded effort was able to distribute 1.9 million books while their neighbor, Illinois, took three years to distribute 1.6 million books because of their partially state-funded model.
Bond stated Missouri will accept no new children in the program and will only distribute books until they run out.
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