Friday's New York Times featured a story about a change in funding in President Obama's 2011 budget that eliminates line-item funding for the nonprofit Reading Is Fundamental. The literacy organization will now have to compete at the state level with many other groups, and it will have to spend time and money to change its business model in order to do so.
The organization is best known for giving out free books to low-income kids. Much of what we know about childhood literacy has changed since 1966, when the group was founded, and we're now focused on issues that need to be addressed before children even get to elementary school. RIF has adapted by starting early literacy programs in schools, health clinics, and child-care clinics. But the organization also spends about $6 million a year buying books. I think it's fair to ask whether that's a good way to spend money, since access to books isn't now our biggest literacy concern; having the pre-literacy skills that would make reading valuable is.
-- Monica Potts
