By A California nonprofit created by the state library to expand childhood literacy has spent more than $1 million in public funds without distributing any books to children, drawing bipartisan criticism from lawmakers during a recent legislative hearing.
The scrutiny centers on the Strong Reader Partnership, formed as the state’s local partner for a broader literacy initiative tied to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Lawmakers approved roughly $70 million in 2022 to expand book access for young readers, with funding split between the Dollywood Foundation, which operates the national program, and a California-based entity.
The Strong Reader Partnership was initially slated to receive up to $19 million. But after nearly two years with little evidence that funds were being used to deliver books, legislators in 2024 redirected most of the money directly to the Dollywood Foundation. The foundation has since reported serving more than 160,000 California children and distributing nearly 3 million books, though it has not contributed its own funds to the effort.
Despite health concerns, Dolly has led the charge in supporting literacy for years.
At a three-hour hearing on April 7, state senators from both parties pressed California State Librarian Greg Lucas and officials tied to the Strong Reader Partnership over spending practices, delayed reporting, and a lack of progress in building local delivery networks.
Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez cited bounced checks and late documents, arguing lawmakers were unable to track how funds had been used. “As far as I can see here, there (were) no local partnerships that you all established in order to facilitate this program over a two-year period,” she said. “We are not able to understand what you did with these dollars and that’s the whole purpose of this hearing.”
Sen. Shannon Grove, who authored the 2022 legislation, questioned why the state library created a separate nonprofit rather than working directly with the Dollywood Foundation. The law required coordination with a nonprofit “organized solely to promote and encourage reading by the children of the state,” a provision that excluded the Tennessee-based foundation.
Lucas defended the expenditures, saying lawmakers redirected the funding before the program could fully develop. In a statement after the hearing, he said “every taxpayer dollar spent on this program is fully accounted for.”
The Strong Reader Partnership’s former executive director, Sonya Harris, had opposed the 2024 funding shift and sent letters to lawmakers urging them to reconsider. Pérez pressed Harris on whether that advocacy violated contractual limits on using public funds to influence legislation, but Harris did not respond during the hearing.
While the roughly $1 million in spending represents a small share of the overall program budget, Pérez said the principle of accountability remained central. “Comments have been made about the amount of money that this is, and that it might be small relative to the budget,” she said. “But for me, as a public servant, I take this very seriously. We need to ensure that when we’re making a commitment to provide something as simple as books to children, that we’re actually delivering on that commitment.”
The episode has renewed debate over the use of nonprofit intermediaries in administering public programs, with critics arguing such arrangements can limit transparency and often serve as kickbacks to Democratic campaigns and, in the words of one critic, serve as a “parallel government.”
Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association Vice President of Communications Susan Shelley said these structures often mean “taxpayers lose transparency,” adding that responsibility lies with both contractors and the Legislature that designed the program.
Grove did not directly address the tension between her criticism and the law’s requirement for a local nonprofit, instead reiterating that the Strong Reader Partnership’s funds were “squandered away without putting books in kids’ hands.”
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