Central Arkansas' Imagination Library moved one step closer to fruition Tuesday evening as the Pulaski County Quorum Court appropriated $25,000 to the literacy program.
Founded by country music star Dolly Parton in 1995, the Imagination Library is an international literacy program that has served more than 950,000 children. The cost of drawing the program to central Arkansas is $200,000. Little Rock, the nonprofit Fifty For the Future and several state representatives and senators are among the contributors helping to fund the program.
According to the program's development director, Allison Johnson, the program will be ready in the next four to six months. Pulaski County would be the 36th county in Arkansas to adopt the program. State participants include Benton, Washington, Saline, Garland and Jefferson counties.
All children born after the program is instituted will be eligible for enrollment in the program until they reach the age of five. Every month, the program will send children an age-appropriate book selected by a committee of parents, teachers and child-literacy specialists.
Eleven years ago, Parton's home state of Tennessee, where she initiated the program, implemented it statewide by matching county funds.
Arkansas Rep. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, who is spearheading the initiative, has said he hopes to pass legislation that would create a similar state-county partnership.
On Tuesday, the Pulaski County Quorum Court approved the $25,000 measure with 13 votes in favor and one abstention, with one member absent.
Metro on 01/25/2017