Tina Fabrique wasn’t kidding when she sang how Reading Rainbow“can fly twice as high.”

Host and co-creator Levar Burton and his team launched a Kickstarter on May 28th with the ambitious goal of bringing the storied series’ “unlimited library of interactive books and video field trips to kids everywhere & help classrooms most in need” and not only blew past their initial $1 million fundraising goal, but has since more than doubled it as of the time this post is published.

Watch Levar Burton’s reaction to crossing that initial $1 million threshold here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-XHuNcSMLc

In a time where 1 out of 4 children in America not only grows up illiterate, but poverty-stricken, this Kickstarter success story shines a bright light of promise, but only time will tell how far the program will go and what effect it will have on the nation. The new Reading Rainbow will certainly make good on its promise to reach beyond the 30 minutes on TV of yesteryear, but it will only be widely accessible to those who can connect to the Internet, which of course is in jeopardy right now, as net neutrality might soon become a thing of the past.

Still, there certainly is much new hope. Thank you, Levar Burton!

Don’t know what Net Neutrality is or what you can do to help protect it? Click here.