Save RIF (Action Alert)

(Cross-Posted at Silence Isn't Golden)

As we debate which Presidential candidate would be best for the future of our country, it is important to not lose sight of those who would destroy that future before it even begins.

As many of you know, President Bush just submitted a budget of $3.1 TRILLION to Congress. This budget contains what will be the legacy of this Administration--additional tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations, and enough money for the Pentagon to bring military spending to the highest level since World War II. On the other hand, 151 programs will be cut or terminated, a third of which are educational programs.

I'm sure the conservatives will just shrug that off as "entitlements" that aren't all that important, and call them a waste of money. But I'd like to tell you about one of those programs that could lose its funding under Bush's budget, and the disastrous consequences that could result.

My mother is the director of the Nashville branch of a national organization called RIF, which stands for Reading is FUNdamental. RIF is best known for a program known as the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, which distributes 16 million free books to around 4.6 million children per year. RIF volunteers will go into public school classrooms in low-income areas, read to the children, and distribute the books.

Around once a month starting when I was 12, and continuing until I graduated from high school, my mother would pull me out of school early to take me with her to her RIF classrooms, most of which were in North or East Nashville. Growing up as an upper-middle class white girl in West Nashville, volunteering with RIF was probably my first real exposure to the poverty around me, the poverty that some people on my side of town like to pretend doesn't exist. It would break my heart when I gave a book to a child only to hear him or her say that they had never owned their own book before, when I had a huge bookshelf in my room.

When asked why we were involved with RIF, my mother would always repeat, "To whom much is given, much is expected." The words always stuck with me, and they were definitely part of the impetus behind my becoming active in politics.

But RIF isn't just active in Nashville, it does the same for millions of children all over the country. But what does it have to do with the Bush budget?

"President Bush’s proposed budget calling for the elimination of Reading Is Fundamental’s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program would be devastating to the 4.6 million children and their families who receive free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 20,000 locations throughout the U.S.

"Unless Congress reinstates $25.5 million in funding for this program, RIF would not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. RIF programs in schools, childcare centers, migrant programs, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, foster and homeless children, and children without access to libraries. The Inexpensive Book Distribution program is authorized under the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975.

RIF is set to lose ALL of its national funding, just so some corporation can receive another tax cut or that the Pentagon can award another no-bid contract. Sorry kids, since you can't make political contributions, you just won't get your books! Never mind that spending a little bit on literacy and education can prevent the need to spend a lot more on stopping crime, we wouldn't want those kids to get a sense of ENTITLEMENT! We can spend $3.1 trillion, but GOD FORBID we spend $3.1000252 trillion!

One thing I have to wonder is how can Laura Bush stand for this? She's a librarian, is she not? Surely she has to understand the value of programs like this? Yeah, I know I shouldn't wonder anything about these people anymore, but still.

Please take action if you can. Contact your Congress-people and join the Facebook group. It won't matter who the nominee is in November if the future of the country has already gone to hell.

•  Thank you.

  by GoldnI on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:38:04 PM PDT

  •  Sadly I doubt you will get the readership your

    diary deserves.

    Maybe you can pimp it in the Open Thread for Diary Rescue.  Other folks pimp their own diaries.

    PaintyKat

    by PaintyKat on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 06:50:48 PM PDT

•  I wish you well with this

  But when our own president has difficulties with basic English, what else can we really expect?

  by banjolele on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:44:46 PM PDT

•  Right on GoldnI!

  The husband of an "ex-librarian" cutting funding to a program that gives books to children who can't afford them.
  Shameful.

  by shayera on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:49:37 PM PDT

  •  Well, he can't likely read them so he doesn't

    value them at all.  He doesn't realize when he has the book upside down or rightside up.  But that is the way he governs too.

    PaintyKat

    by PaintyKat on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:59:11 PM PDT

    •  You're exactly right PaintyKat.

      He doesn't care a bit about the shape of the country.

      by shayera on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 06:36:50 PM PDT

•  what the fuck

  i loved RIF. Of course, this douchewad likes to kill everything I like. Fuck him.

  by terrypinder on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:54:40 PM PDT

•  Count me in as contacting my Congress people

  My grandchildren use this program and buy books all the time and for that reason are avid readers.  They read books and report on them also.  Readers who read to the degree that my grandchildren are becoming more of a rarity with computers and games.  I was kind of surprised when they were actually waiting for each Lemony Snickets book to come out so they could read it and the same way with the Harry Potter books and movies.

  There won't be any educational subsidies left by the time this group of outlaws leaves town.  Increasingly, programs like this are the only way some families can afford to buy books their children need for their education and classroom needs.  

  PaintyKat

  by PaintyKat on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 05:57:37 PM PDT

•  Reading is not an approved activity

  under the Patriot Act.  Reading is subversive.  

  See--what you just did?  That's dangerous, you know.  

  An old favorite expression of mine:  Republicans^idiots

  by mem from somerville on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 06:36:13 PM PDT

  •  Especially with grandchildren who read

    Harry Potter.  Huckaby would surely want it outlawed and McCain would go along if someone could wake him up.

    We had one sleeping Prez who managed to set the stage for the current outlaws.  They all got their job back and got advancements.

    The murderers who Pappy Bush pardoned from Iran Contra have been given special jobs where they can have the most impact.  They are experienced at disappearing folks who can testifying against them.

    Harry Potter is of the devil's people.  I saw it on the tubes.

    PaintyKat

    by PaintyKat on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 06:49:29 PM PDT

•  To get some help

  Did you think to notify the American Library Association? (They probably already know about this, but I figure priming the pump can't hurt.) I'd be willing to bet that more than a few current librarians will be mighty upset with this idea. I'll certainly be mentioning it to all my library buddies (I'm on the advisory committee for the library at my university, and on the board of trustees for their friends organization, and on the search committee for a new dean of the library, which will be meeting quite a bit over the next several weeks, as we're bringing in the first couple of candidates to interview. I should be able to do a ton of networking!)

  by musing85 on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 06:54:25 PM PDT

  •  exactly

    that is an organization that knows how to get things done.

    by a gilas girl on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 10:46:18 PM PDT

•  Here's what I'm telling Durbin and Obama

  Dear Senator:

  I was appalled to learn that, in President Bush's bloated $3.1 trillion budget for FY2009, there apparently was no room for a paltry $25.5 million to fund the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, an initiative of Reading is FUNdamental. I'm old enough to remember when RIF was new, and while I was fortunate enough as a child not to need its services, that does not mean I do not recognize their value. As a librarian, as an educator, as an educated man whose personal library exceeds 2,000 volumes, but most importantly as a citizen of the United States, I cannot express my indignation that such an inexpensive, beneficial and, yes, fundamental program is targeted for elimination--and by a president who famously asked, in his first campaign, "Is our children learning?"

  The Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation (Sect. 5451 of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act) is not funded through earmarks. It provides 16 million books annually (or about $1.60 per book) to 4.6 million children and their families across the United States. The program has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975. Were it not so serious, the fact that a man who is a poster boy for remedial education wanted to eliminate this program would be hugely ironic.

  I urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to restore funding for this program when the president's budget request comes to the Senate floor. At a time when surveys show that fewer and fewer adults are reading books after completing their educations, now is hardly the time to deprive children of the opportunity to read.

  I don't have a representative at the moment. But you might want to ping Kossack NYBri--he's apparently on the campaign staff for Bill Foster, who's running next month to fill out Fat Denny Hastert's term. Maybe they can use this as a hook for a campaign ad.

  by musing85 on Fri Feb 08, 2008 at 07:11:48 PM PDT

•  I remember RIF!

  To be honest, I got turned off it somewhat when they recommended/allowed (my memory's a little fuzzy) me to pick The Scarlet Letter. Maybe not the best choice for a fourth grader...

  I always figured it was something they did everywhere, since I definitely didn't go to a poor elementary school (it's the one Dodd's kids went to in Des Moines); the program definitely does not deserve to get cut.

  by omegajew on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 10:36:52 PM PDT

•  OMG the Cost!

  "Unless Congress reinstates $25.5 million in funding for this program, RIF would not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children."

  $25.5 / 16 = $1.59 a book. Insanely cheap!!!

  "RIF programs in schools, childcare centers, migrant programs, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, foster and homeless children, and children without access to libraries."

  There's an ideal photo-op for our Dem candidates.

  This really deserves more attention.

  by fxq on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 11:43:26 PM PDT

•  I'm glad this was rescued

  but the call to action won't get the deserved attention, unfortunately.

  I would suggest that Laura Bush be contacted as well, but a lot of people.  She may not even know abotu this, unless she hears it from someone other than her husband.

  I am an Edwards Democrat!

  by Scubaval on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 06:26:48 AM PDT

•  Glad this got onto Diary Rescue

  I wrote a RIF diary on Friday, too--glad to see the subject was deemed important enough for a rescue, but unfortunately they both got lost in the shuffle.

  by malibu1964 on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 02:10:01 PM PDT