Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is pleading with Indiana not to cut its budget in the state, the Daily Beast reports.
According to the Tennessean, Indiana is considering a budget bill that would slash funding to Parton’s program, which since 1995 has given free books to children. Early on, the initiative served kids in Sevier County, Tennessee, but now mails books to children across the U.S. as well as in Canada, Britain, Ireland, and Australia.
Indiana currently funds half of the program in the state, with Parton’s program and the United Way responsible for the other half. The proposed budget removes the state funding from the initiative.
Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood Foundation, which runs the program, said in a statement, “We are hopeful that Governor [Mike] Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs. The beauty of the Imagination Library is that it unites us all—regardless of politics—because every child deserves the chance to dream big and succeed.”
Maureen Bauer, a Democratic state representative in Indiana, told the Tennessean that her fellow party members hoped to save the funding, saying, “It was a disservice to remove it.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
