Dolly Parton died last Tuesday. She was 80. Her family asked that instead of flowers, people give to her Imagination Library — the program she built in 1995 to mail a free book, every month, to any child under five. She started it in honor of her father, who never learned to read. Three hundred million books later, it’s the largest early-childhood literacy program in the world.
It has never been fully available to the children of Utah. I want to change that, and I think this is the moment we do it.
I’m a mom. I know what a stack of books does at the end of a long day — the way a kid who won’t sit still for anything will sit still for a story. I also represent Davis County, where a handful of good people have quietly been getting these books into homes for a couple of years already.
Kara Toone at the Davis Education Foundation said our job now is “to finish what she started here.” That’s exactly how I feel.
But I’m not writing this only as a mom. I’m writing it as a legislator who reads appropriations spreadsheets, and I want to be honest about why this belongs in the state budget.
Roughly half of Utah’s kids reach third grade still unable to read at grade level. We spend real money — tens of millions — trying to fix that later, with interventions and retention and remediation, after a child is already behind.
Dolly spent 30 years mailing books to other people’s children because she believed every kid deserves a shelf of their own.
This program works at the other end. It reaches a child at birth and builds a home library before kindergarten, when it is cheapest and easiest to move the needle. For about the price of a couple of stamps a month per child, we fund the foundation instead of paying for the fix.
Here’s the part I care about most as a conservative. This is not the government raising anyone’s children. No curriculum. No screen. No mandate. No home visit. Families opt in, the book shows up in the mailbox and a parent reads it to their kid. The state’s role is small and specific: partner with a proven nonprofit, match private dollars one-to-one, and get out of the way. Government as the catalyst, not the operator.
Because the books come by mail, they reach every corner of the state. The kid in a small town an hour from the nearest library gets the same book as the kid who lives down the street from one. No application, no income test, no stigma. Every zip code.
Utah Speaker of the House Mike Schultz put it well: “Every child should have the opportunity to grow up with a strong foundation for learning. We’re excited to work to get more books into the hands of Utah kids and help give them the tools they need to succeed.”
Utah’s first lady Abby Cox has spoken about Dolly as a leader who understood “the transformative power of reading.” I agree with both of them. Now I want us to put it in statute.
Sen. Heidi Balderree and I are carrying legislation to make Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library available to every Utah child under five, through our state partner, Operation Literacy. We built it to last — a durable program families can count on, not a one-time check that vanishes in a lean budget year.
To my colleagues: this is one of the highest-return, lowest-drama investments we’ll vote on. To Utah families: we need you to show up. Sign the Raising Utah Readers petition and tell your legislator early literacy is worth it. Proof of demand is what turns a good idea into a funded one.
Dolly spent 30 years mailing books to other people’s children because she believed every kid deserves a shelf of their own. The best way Utah can thank her is to make that true for every one of ours.
Let’s finish what she started.