Less than three days after launching his Kickstarter.com campaign to bring “Reading Rainbow” to children all across the nation, actor LeVar Burton’s fundraising drive has flown past the $2 million mark.
Burton’s starting goal for the campaign was set at $1 million, but the support to bring back “Reading Rainbow” as a web series blew his goal out the water in less than a day.
Burton’s campaign was launched to revive “Reading Rainbow” on the web in an effort to teach literacy to millions of children.
Burton explained that he knew the web was the best place to reach the greatest number of children.
“You take advantage of where kids are,” he told The Verge about his new efforts. “Back in the ‘80s that was in front of the television set. Today, you have to have access to the web.”
While the show is already available on tablets, the money garnered from the campaign will be aimed at efforts to get the program on desktops and in low-income schools for free.
Families will also be able to purchase a subscription to the program for computers, although the price point has not been confirmed.
Source: Kickstarter.com
The subscription fee is currently about $60 for tablets.
The new online “Reading Rainbow” might not be free like the PBS show was back in the ‘80s, but it’s still an extremely affordable price point.
“Our education system – the way we educate our kids – is failing our children,” Burton said. “ Long term, I know if we’re successful we’re going to have a better educated populace in America, and we’ll be better prepared to compete going forward.”
The page for the Kickstarter campaign pointed out that one in every four children in America will grow up illiterate if “real change” doesn’t happen soon.
“These problems won’t solve themselves,” the page reads. “Real change requires us all to work together. We cannot afford to lose generations of children to illiteracy.”
Burton believes that relaunching the 26-time Emmy winning program could be the change that the nation needs to solve the problem.
