Missouri may slash funding for Imagination Library

provided by Imagination Library of Missouri

Missouri reported 168,188 children were enrolled in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program at the end of 2025.

A literacy program aimed at fostering a love of reading for Missouri children is facing a significant state funding cut.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requested $6 million to provide the Imagination Library during the 2027 fiscal year, an effort to maintain fairly flat funding for the program.

Gov. Mike Kehoe offered $2 million, as part of his proposed budget.

“The governor’s recommendation is to reduce it to $2 million, and the House committee recommendation is the same, to reduce it from $6 million to $2 million,” said Kyle Kruse, deputy commissioner of financial and administrative services for DESE. “That will have a dramatic effect on the continued viability of that program.”

Lucas Bond, chief communications officer for DESE, said the program costs nearly $5 million this year.

Lawmakers are expected to pass a state budget by May 8, which Kehoe is expected to finalize by June 30.

Imagination Library was started by country music icon Dolly Parton and provides free age-appropriate books to children every month for the first five years of life. It is just one program facing a state funding cut in the DESE budget.

A detailed update about the budget process was provided March 24 to the state Board of Education, and the proposed drop in state funding for Imagination Library raised questions. However, the impact is not yet clear.

“We are still working with Dollywood Foundation to figure out … if this is what the funding is, what can we do in the future,” said Pam Victor, chief budget officer for DESE. “How can we minimize this impact? What would this program look like going forward?”

Parton started the program in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up, and then expanded it to the entire state in 2004.

In November 2023, Missouri became the 14th state to offer the program to children under age 5 in every ZIP code. The cost to distribute the books was $26 a year, per child, which was covered by the state funding.

Currently, 46% of eligible Missouri children are registered. The number enrolled has grown from 132,314 in early 2024 to the current 168,444.

A detailed report showed more than 5,000, or 40% of eligible children in Greene County, were part of the program. In Dade and Taney counties, more than 60% of eligible children participate, according to a state report.

Imagination Library was not the only literacy program facing cuts. DESE requested $10 million for an elementary literacy program, but both Kehoe and the lawmakers in the House have recommended cutting the full amount.

Victor said the new program, which was approved by lawmakers the prior year, was to provide books for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“We didn’t stand the program up because we knew cuts were coming,” she said. “Why start a new program and then turn around and cut it?”

Kruse said the state-initiated program was like Imagination Library, but for elementary students. He said DESE was advised in early 2025 that the funding was unlikely to be allocated.

“The program was never actually started,” he said.