{"id":63199,"date":"2026-03-17T08:11:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=63199"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:11:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:11:50","slug":"when-charity-funds-go-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=63199","title":{"rendered":"When Charity Funds Go Missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton is known for starting a literacy program for children. She began her Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails high-quality, free books to more than 3 million children around the world each month, in 1995.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Breitbart<\/a> reported:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

California\u2019s top librarian is accused of failing to produce $650,000 in missing funds linked to a literacy program started by country music star Dolly Parton in east Tennessee in 1995.<\/strong><\/p>\n

State legislators recently pelted Greg Lucas, the leader of the California State Library, with questions about the funds during a budget hearing on education, the New York Post<\/em> reported<\/a> on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

…During the hearing, state Sen. Shannon Grove (R) told Lucas he did not have documentation to show where the money went.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She then asked point blank, \u201cWhere\u2019s the money?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucas was appointed<\/a> to lead<\/a> the state library in 2014 by former Gov. Jerry Brown, ABC 10 reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

Legislation for a statewide version of the program through the state library was signed into law in 2022 with the approval of over $68 million in state funding for the books. The Post<\/em> noted that \u201cLawmakers allowed up to 10% \u2014 about $6.8 million \u2014 for administrative costs and set a goal of enrolling roughly 65% of eligible California children within five years.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, when the program stalled for a couple of years the state library entered a $19.2 million contract in late 2024 with Strong Reader Partnership, a nonprofit group that was closed down in September. It received over $4.8 million from the state with $4 million shifted to a money market account.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nonprofit said it spent about $1.2 million but bank statements reportedly showed over $500,000 in expenses. Now, lawmakers claim nearly $650,000 is missing and Lucas has said he will get answers for officials.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In regard to the lack of documentation, Grove told Lucas in a budget meeting, \u201cYou don\u2019t have receipts requested six times. You don\u2019t have bank statements requested six times from this committee. \u2026\u00a0That\u00a0makes\u00a0no\u00a0sense, and that reeks of horrific no transparency and potential fraud.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This could simply be a case of missing receipts, but unfortunately, California does not have a great record in preventing fraud in government programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton is known for starting a literacy program for children. She began her Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails high-quality, free books to more than 3 million children around the world each month, in 1995.\u00a0 On Saturday, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10348,30,19234,19231,19232,19233,19235],"class_list":["post-63199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breitbart","tag-california","tag-california-state-library","tag-dolly-parton","tag-imagination-library","tag-literacy-program","tag-strong-reader-partnership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63200,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63199\/revisions\/63200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}