Alabama is widely known for having one of the worst literacy rates, but if Pell City Mayor Guin Robinson and businessman Curtis Capps have anything to say about it, their community will be bucking that trend.
Both have thrown their support behind Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a program that gives books free to local children from birth through age 5.
Reading and language are the foundation for all other learning, and if the program becomes a reality for Pell City, students there will certainly have a leg up — especially those from economically disadvantaged families.
Robinson is on the mark that his city would benefit from the program, and he is also right in taking the proposal a step further, recommending it for all of St. Clair County.
We applaud the efforts to bring the program to the Pell City area and hope other communities in the region take note and follow suit.
