All children need to be inspired through their education and surroundings to develop the necessary academic and social-emotional skills to be college and career ready. Yet income and background often limit access, especially to high-quality programs. Upper-income families have tripled their investment in their children’s education in a generation—amounting to a gap of 6,000 hours of extra learning by 6th grade. Lower-income children count on public schools, even though most students only spend 20% of their waking hours in the classroom. To shift this trend, schools and community organizations like ours across the country are collaborating to expand learning opportunities for low-income students, with a special focus on the critical, but often neglected, middle school years.