Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library celebrates gifting 200 million books
Launched in 1995, the program spans five countries and reportedly gifts over 2.4 million free age-appropriate books each month to children around the world.
Education
This archive covers education milestones from expanding school access in low-income communities to innovative teaching methods and rising literacy rates. Stories here spotlight what’s working — and who’s making it happen — across classrooms, policy halls, and community programs worldwide.
Apple has contributed over $200M to Racial Equity and Justice Initiative since 2020
Apple has reported that REJI’s education grants have reached more than 160,000 learners, while committing over $50 million to HBCUs and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, since it launched in 2020.
Yale, University of New Haven partnership celebrates first degrees awarded to inmates
Yale Prison Education Initiative just celebrated its first-ever commencement, with seven students receiving associate degrees inside a Connecticut prison in June 2023. Four of them had been taking classes since the program’s very first cohort in 2018, when only 12 students were enrolled — meaning these graduates literally helped build the program they were graduating from. The ceremony at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution included caps, gowns, families, and Governor Ned Lamont, who responded to each graduate’s speech by name and later called it the most moving graduation he’d ever attended. One graduate is now pursuing his bachelor’s degree and planning a career as a defense attorney. It’s a quiet but powerful reminder that educational equity, done right, looks like rigorous partnership — not charity.
California expands Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide universal access to free books for young children
With this expansion, all California children under 5 will be eligible to receive a free book in the mail every month, as the program scales over the next several years.
Illinois set to become first U.S. state to end book bans
Illinois is poised to become the first U.S. state to outlaw book bans, with House Bill 2789 heading to Governor JB Pritzker’s desk and set to take effect January 1. Rather than criminalizing censorship, the law ties state funding to a clear standard: public libraries and schools must either follow the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or adopt their own written policy against book bans. It’s a creative answer to a real problem — Illinois alone saw 67 attempts to remove books in 2022. As challenges multiply nationwide, often targeting works by LGBTQ+ authors and writers of color, Illinois offers a model other states could borrow: protecting the freedom to read by making censorship costly, not just controversial.
Boston expands tuition-free community college program to all residents
Starting this fall, any city resident will be eligible to pursue an associate’s degree or certificate at one of six partnering local institutions without paying to attend.
New project to bring education to 10 million girls in rural India
Working in partnership with the government, Educate Girls operates in over 20,000 villages serving adolescent girls and young women who have permanently dropped out of school.
World’s first university dedicated entirely to climate change opens in Wales
Black Mountains College in Wales is currently recruiting students for its BA in Sustainable Futures due to launch in September 2023.
Top British universities offer Afghan women free courses until Taliban lift learning ban
Afghan girls and women with internet access will be able to study more than 1,200 courses from 20 top British institutions at no cost to themselves.
Claudine Gay to be Harvard’s 1st Black president
Gay will be the only Black president currently in the Ivy League and the second Black woman ever, following Ruth Simmons, who led Brown University from 2001 to 2012.