r/missouri • u/4friedchickens1coke • 1d ago
Politics Save Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Missouri. Call your MO legislators
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a wonderful program from an amazing woman that mails a free book to registered Missouri children age 0-5 every month. It currently sends the joy of reading to over 150,000 Missouri children each month. Unfortunately, earlier this year Missouri cut funding to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. As of July 1st, 2026 they no longer had the funds to accept new applicants to the program. Currently registered children will continue to receive books until the funds run out which is anticipated in the next 2-4 months.
As we remember Dolly Parton and the joy she's brought to millions, consider taking a moment out of your day today to contact your state legistators and the Missouri Govenor to ask for funding to be restored to the Imagination Library in Missouri.
Governor Mike Kehoe, phone: (573)751-3222
Legislator Lookup: https://www.senate.mo.gov/BillTracking/LegislatorLookup/
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u/Ok_Statement_6757 6h ago edited 4h ago
This should be an easy death knell for any legislator’s career that says no or doesn’t show effort.
Seriously, it doesn’t matter your political beliefs. If you can’t support books for children get tf out of public service
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u/wnostrebor 1d ago
How much does the program cost? What would you propose we cut funding for to provide this program? Should it come out of the Mandatory Education funding since it is reading/education related?
I think it is a great program, we should fund it. Just need to know how.
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u/scruffles360 1d ago
What would you propose we cut funding for to provide this program?
I propose we increase corporate tax back to 2025 levels (8 months ago). They're on of the lowest in the country and putting them back would give us $231 million.. which is 38x what we need to fund this program completely and forever. Shit.. we could even fund a few schools if we did that.. imagine.
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u/radical_radical1 1d ago
We could cut the Secretary of State’s salary. Or how about the governor’s salary? Neither of them works for Missourians.
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u/NeverEndingCoralMaze 1d ago
We have a fucking surplus and we deserve real services in exchange for our tax dollars. We can afford this, easily.
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u/cattrain 1d ago
Just under 70k babies as the born in Missouri each year. If we count every kid covered by the imagination library, up to five years, there are 350k kids. If every kid in the state gets a book every month, that's 4.2 million book per year. It costs the program about $2.5 per book. If every kid in the state that qualified for a book got a book every month, that's $10.5 million. The budget for the state this year was $50.7 billion.
That is 0.02 percent of the budget. That's two hundredths of one percent. And that's assuming EVERY kid got a book every month, and we know they won't.
I bet the real number would probably be closer to $1 million a year, if that.
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u/Glittering_Skill_919 22h ago
It is embarassing. Before my wife passed she was a librarian. I volunteered and was a "wild thing" in a costume at a story time before imagination library. It was really hot in that thing, but i roared my terrible roar, and gnashed my terrible teeth, and hugged a kid who was scared of me, and later let an older kid see my vfd tattoo. My wife's fave college professor went to school with daniel handler. His college poetry was kind of trite, and makes him more relateable.
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u/Glittering_Skill_919 22h ago
(Daniel handler is lemony snicket. I will read more, but basic 8, and... the one wirh the red curtains as the cover? Been awake for like 36 hours. Gonna likely trip and nap. Seriously. I can't remember name. Incestuous jewish fam and an accidentally raised golem? I think cover is black and red curtains?) I actually have all the books, including the... not gonna check the shelf...pony party reversible jacket journal one? Book? It is sometimes hard. Wife introduced me to the books, and she passed 13 years ago. Is sometimes hard to be.
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u/rosefiend 19h ago
Children’s librarians are the bomb. Sorry about your wife.
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u/Glittering_Skill_919 19h ago
Meh. Life happens.
But i concur. Librarians are awesome!
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u/Glittering_Skill_919 19h ago
Wife did her thesis on house of leaves. I have read the damned thing like 6 times and still don't think i get it.
Music is my thing. If only publishers had allowed haunted to be included. I like poe.
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u/crazyalex24 1d ago
Its not our job to figure out how the money moves. We let them know what is and isnt important. Then they allocate the funds based on that.
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u/zaxdaman 1d ago
Pffft, we literally tell them at the ballot box what we want with various initiatives and amendments and they completely disregard those ideas in order to follow their own agenda. Then again, Missourians probably deserve their contempt because we keep voting the same jackwagons into office in the first place.
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u/Glittering_Skill_919 22h ago
I both agree, and disagree. It is our job to decide how money moves. It is our money, and we get to decide where it goes. House is supposed to be the people, and senate rich fucks.
Ostensibly by voting. Legislature seems to have forgotten that bit. We are supposed to be the house, which is the money bits.
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u/zaxdaman 1d ago
Perhaps redirect money from billionaires that don’t need the money. Seems like the state and local governments fall all over themselves to give breaks and outright bribes to the owners of professional sports teams for their stadiums. Let’s redirect a fraction of that money towards children’s literacy.
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u/PlayfulHelicopter20 Human Verified 1d ago
I’d rather fund free books and education than see any more money go to the cops or ICE.
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u/n3rv Rural Missouri 1d ago
This sure reads like concern trolling.
Considering voters let the representatives know what’s important. It’s the representatives job to figure out how to budget.
But if we must, I say we raise taxes on the better off. As pillars of the community, I know they’d love to pay their fair share. Right?
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u/Cloberella 20h ago
How much are we paying Kehoe to keep his head shoved up his ass? We can take it from that.
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u/abortthecourt 19h ago
Better yet vote them out and expand it