By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Whatever happened to RIF?
Congress cut funding for free kids books 4 years ago
W 043013 RIF 01
Federal funding to Reading Is Fundamental had already been slashed when Langston Chapel Elementary School kindergarten teacher Cindy Bozeman read to her students in this April 2013 RIF distribution at Statesboro Regional Library. Local donations and other sources kept the program going. - photo by FILE PHOTO
A reader called the newspaper recently asking what had become of the RIF distribution from the Statesboro Regional Library. Although the library has continued to distribute books free to children and calls this RIF, the library has not received any national Reading Is Fundamental money in several years. As part of budget cuts in 2011, Congress eliminated appropriations to RIF, which had received $24.8 million that year.
Sign up for the Herald's free e-newsletter