U.S. Students Need Help Getting Online
The government should let schools subsidize at-home internet connections.
The new classroom.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images North America
With a new school year approaching, the U.S. faces an educational crisis. Though the Trump administration wants a full reopening of K-12 schools, not all states and school districts are going along. Millions of students will still attend classes remotely, at least part of the time, and many may stay home until coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Such a prolonged absence from the classroom will harm students of all ages and abilities. For those who lack reliable access to computers and high-speed internet at home — as many as one-third of all public-school students — the shift to online learning threatens to create deficits they’ll never recover from.