Your tax dollars at work…
I’m sure you’re familiar with Dolly Parton‘s Imagination Library. The incredible program offers free books monthly to children from birth until they turn 5 years old in an effort to improve childhood literacy and get kids reading. It does this by teaming up with local partners like nonprofits, libraries, school districts, or cities to cover the cost of the books, while the Imagination Library administers the program.
These local partners get funding through donations and fundraising, but also in many instances through government funding. And in California, quite a bit of that funding has gone missing – to the tune of $1 million that can’t be accounted for.
The California State Library created a nonprofit to administer the Imagination Library program. The nonprofit, called Strong Reader Partnership, was initially allocated $19 million, but issues with the Strong Reader Partnership caused state lawmakers to redirect funds directly to the Dollywood Foundation.
Despite the state deciding that the money should go directly to Dolly to administer the program, the nonprofit still reported spending around $1.2 million, but could only provide receipts for around $555,000, meaning there was around $650,000 unaccounted for.
$325,000 of the $1.1 million went to a company called Sage Strategies for consulting work, with invoices failing to detail what work was actually done beyond describing it as “general consulting.” Oh, and the consulting company’s CEO, Sonya Harris, also served as the Strong Reader Partnership’s executive director.
Must have been a pretty sweet gig…
There was also $581,708.55 that went to a marketing firm, including $125,000 for a webpage – which lawmakers say doesn’t exist.
And then there was a $7,000 monthly fee for bookkeeping services, totaling around $110,000 and including a $40,000 “setup fee” for the organization which had totaled fewer than 100 transactions. Paying a bookkeeper $1,100 per transaction is the kind of inefficiency and waste that could only be accomplished by the government…
During a recent hearing, California state senators from both parties blasted the State Librarian (a job that kinda seems like a waste of money itself, but what do I know) and accused the nonprofit of wasting money while trying to take credit for work that was actually done by Dolly’s foundation:
“You can’t tell me what students you enrolled. You’re piggybacking and say you get credit for what Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library did.”
Despite the issues, the Dollywood Foundation has still managed to reach over 160,000 children and deliver 2.9 million books since launching in June 2023.
Which just proves that if you need somebody to do something right, don’t ask the government: Leave it to Dolly.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
The country music legend first launched the Imagination Library in 1995 for children in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee. Since then, the program has expanded to all 50 states, with nearly half of states providing some kind of government funding for its operation. As of 2022, the program was sending out 2 million books to children every month, and in 2023 Dolly’s Imagination Library sent out its 200 millionth book. By 2024, 1 in 7 children, or nearly 14%, received monthly books from the Imagination Library.
Just an absolutely incredible program, which makes it all the more infuriating that the government managed to mishandle – or worse – the money.
