Imagination Library gets 1-year reprieve after state cuts funding

The state schools superintendent announced last week his agency will fund a program that provides free books to young children locally and statewide for one year after the Legislature cut the funding because of Washington’s budget deficit.

Inspired by her father’s illiteracy, megastar Dolly Parton started Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library 30 years ago in Tennessee. Now, the nationwide program spans five countries. It sends a free book every month to children 5 and younger who enroll in the program.

In 2022, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library became a statewide program in Washington. The nonprofit Support For Early Learning & Families is the Southwest Washington affiliate, serving Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties.

“I feel so strongly that we have to find a way to invest in children right from the very beginning,” said Debbie Ham, executive director of Support For Early Learning & Families.

Although children and families receive the books free of charge, each book costs $2.60.

The local affiliates fundraise half of the cost, while the state covers the rest. Now, the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will take over for a year “with the goal being to obtain permanent funding from the Legislature next session,” state schools Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a June 25 news release.

“Washington’s youngest children cannot afford to have their opportunities for early learning cut to this extent,” Reykdal said in the news release. “While I plan to advocate for renewed funding in the supplemental session next year, the Imagination Library of Washington risks losing their effective, statewide infrastructure if funding generated from the statewide match is halted for even one year.”

The Imagination Library of Washington received $2 million from the Legislature for the 2023-2025 biennium. Former Gov. Jay Inslee’s last budget proposal in December didn’t include continuing the library’s funding into the new biennium, and the Legislature decided not to fund the program for the next two years.

According to the state’s Imagination Library June 2025 Parent/Guardian Survey, 91.3 percent of parents or caregivers believe the program is helping to prepare their child for kindergarten.

At infancy, the brain is about a quarter of the size of an average adult brain and doubles in size in the first year. The brain is nearly fully grown by age 5, according to First Things First, an organization that provides families with information and support for their young children’s development.

Based on Imagination Library’s research findings and literature review, children who participated in the program experienced increased emerging literacy skills, along with positive attitudes toward reading, the motivation to read and connections with their caregivers.

“I think all the local affiliates were talking to people and expressed trying to figure out a path, but we would not have been able to raise enough money locally to cover both the state funding and the local funding that we need to do,” Ham said.

The program costs about $30,000 a month to operate, with Support For Early Learning & Families and the state splitting the cost, Ham said.

Brianna Murschel: 360-735-4534; [email protected]