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It all started with Little House on the Prairie.

As a young teacher working in a Bronx, N.Y., public high school in the late ’90s, Charles Best was eager for his students to read the series of American children’s novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but found himself making photocopy after photocopy of the one edition he could get his hands on—all at his own expense. He knew that because of chronic budget cuts many of his fellow teachers were also supporting their classrooms and students with supplies paid for out of their own pockets.

Charles Best

This struck Best, a native New Yorker and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Yale, as unfair for the all-too-often-ignored teachers, and a broken and grim situation for students that most people, if they realized what was happening, would likely want to help address—especially if they could choose how they could help and follow their...

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 16, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.