Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy
If more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plague our nation and our society.
—Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy at the George & Barbara Bush Foundation

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy Board of Directors and the Bush family made a strategic decision to return to its original mission: operating primarily as a national grantmaking organization. As a result, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy will soon evolve into the Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy at the George & Barbara Bush Foundation.

The George & Barbara Bush Foundation is proud to serve as the strategic partner in this new chapter, helping ensure that Barbara Bush is forever remembered for her strength, abounding love for family, quick wit, and deep commitment to family literacy.

We are honored to become the new home of the Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy and proud to have Texas A&M University as our academic partner along with a robust network of national family literacy experts who will continue advancing the First Lady’s legacy of literacy.

Legacy of Literacy

Mrs. Bush’s commitment to literacy took root in 1978, when she realized that everything she worried about in life—from poverty to addiction to crime—could improve if more people could read, write, and comprehend. When her husband became Vice President, Mrs. Bush took the opportunity to explore her passion and began the groundwork for what would become the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy on a national scale.

As First Lady, Mrs. Bush brought literacy to the attention of our country, calling it “the most important issue we have.” Mrs. Bush launched the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy on March 6, 1989, to support parents with unmet literacy needs so they could learn alongside their young children. The National Literacy Act was signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 25, 1991, offering millions of adults in the United States the opportunity and resources necessary to return to education and earn their high school diplomas.

For more than three decades, the Barbara Bush Foundation has carried forward her vision—investing over $110 million in programs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and transforming the lives of millions of families.

Today, that legacy continues through the Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy at the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, which strengthens the work of outstanding national and community-based organizations already making an extraordinary impact on the ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

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