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Committee sends Imagination Library bill to Ways and Means after advocates stress sustainability
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Summary
Lawmakers advanced HB1934 to Ways and Means with technical amendments and a deferred effective date after library officials and nonprofits requested initial state funding to expand Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library statewide and raised questions about program targeting and sustainability.
A joint Senate education committee on March 25 voted to advance House Bill 1934, which would establish an Imagination Library of Hawaii program to mail one free book per month to children from birth to age 5, forwarding the measure to Ways and Means with technical and non‑substantive amendments and defecting the effective date to July 31, 2055.
Stacy Aldrich of the Hawaii State Public Library System told the committee the program helps children build home libraries and literacy skills; the library asked for full funding for the first two years while private partners are identified and for coordinator funding to run the statewide program. "We have a small version of the program right now… If you imagine, we have, I think, 80,000 kids who would be eligible for this program," Aldrich said.
Nainoa Amal, executive director of Friends of the Library of Hawaii, said his nonprofit runs Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in rural pockets (Molokai, Lanai, parts of the Big Island, Hana and portions of Kauai) for roughly 500 children and cited an estimated vendor cost of "$2.60 per book mailed to homes every month," which he said amounts to about $31 per child per year. Amal asked the state to provide full funding until private partnerships can be secured.
Committee members questioned sustainability and targeting. The chair urged the library to return with a plan focused on areas of highest need and to explain how the program would be sustained without indefinite full state support. Aldrich and Amal said the program is relatively modest in cost and can be scaled via public-private partnership; Aldrich cited international research tying home libraries to later reading success.
The committee adopted the chair’s recommendation to move HB1934 forward to Ways and Means and directed technical edits; appropriation amounts were left blank in the bill and will be addressed in future hearings.
The chair asked the library to present a sustainability and targeting plan when the bill reaches Ways and Means.
