Fundamentalish

Evidently, the federal funding for Reading Is Fundamental’s program where they give away books to poor kids has been eliminated from the budget. Or at least from the budget proposed by Our Only President. I have little doubt that it will wind up with some funding, in the end, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the final compromise between the zero budget proposed and last years $25.5 million turns out to be something like $10 million.

The RIF people would like a lot of letters to congressmen about this. YHB is skeptical of letter-writing campaigns. Some Gentle Readers, I know, are not. For them, I pass the information along without prejudice, for what it is worth.

There are general questions about whether this is the sort of business we need our federal government to be involved in, and whether giving kids books is, absent a more coherent and more general education strategy, a good use of money. Fortunately, the correct answer to those questions is yes. Sure, it would be better if RIF was entirely funded through voluntary donations. And sure, it would be better if we had a coherent education strategy. And sure, it would be better if a poor family spent money on books instead of videogames, DVD players and fancy shoes. All of that. Fine. But so what? RIF is a Good Thing, and is doing a good job at turning money into books for kids.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.