County OKs $ 25,000 for books for kids

The Pulaski County Quorum Court approved a measure Tuesday to contribute $ 25,000 to a literacy program that would mail children in the county a monthly book.

The Arkansas Imagination Library, part of a nonprofit founded by country- music star Dolly Parton that has served more than 950,000 children internationally, will help ensure that every child from birth to age 5 in Pulaski County is encouraged to learn to read.

The cost of the program will be $ 200,000, according to state Rep. Clarke Tucker, D- Little Rock. The county’s dollars will be contingent upon a partnership with municipalities within the county, businesses, nonprofits and the state to fund the full amount.

According to a county spokesman, so far Little Rock has expressed interest in contributing another $ 25,000, which would buy about a year’s worth of books for 1,000 children.

“We have a general- fund budget of $ 70 million, and we’re talking about $ 25,000,” said District 13 Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers. “That’s the equivalent of a family budget with $ 70,000 and spending $ 25 towards the literacy of their children.”

All children in the county will be eligible for enrollment in the program.

Each month from the day the child is born until hisfifth birthday, an age- appropriate book would be selected by a committee of parents, teachers, and child literacy specialists and sent to the family by mail.

According to Tucker, the program has an intellectual and neurological component that better prepares children for kindergarten and beyond.

“It also has a huge social, emotional and family development component as well, because when a child receives a book in the mail, they go to their parent or grandparent or sibling or whoever and request to be read to,” Tucker said. “We all know that time when a child is in a parent’s lap or a family member’s lap being read to is some of the most special times that exist.”

Pulaski County would be

the 36th county in Arkansas to adopt the program. Other participating counties include Benton, Washington, Saline, Garland, and Jefferson. Johnson, Yell, Perry, Conway, Lee and Phillips counties have inactive programs, according to Arkansas School Boards Association information.

Imagination Library was developed by Parton in 1995 when she implemented the program in her home of Sevier County, Tenn. According to Tucker, the program also began saving the state’s education system money on remedial education.

“The impact that it had was so significant that it grew well beyond her own county,” Tucker said.

Eleven years ago, Tennessee implemented the program statewide by matching 50 percent of funds with counties, and Tucker said he is working on legislation that would create a similar state- county partnership.

The Quorum Court passed the measure unanimously, with two members absent.