50 Million Kids Can’t Attend School. What Happens to Them?

Internet access is, of course, fundamental to sound educational policy. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 12 million schoolchildren had trouble completing schoolwork because they lacked internet access at home. Nevertheless, there is significantly more to online education than streaming a lesson designed for the classroom. Effective virtual education requires new styles of teaching as well as curriculum materials designed specifically for online use. By contrast, the Michigan researchers say, “Even in the best of circumstances, distance learning over the next couple of months will involve hastily planned instruction in unprepared districts from teachers who were expecting to use face-to-face instruction.”

A learning reversal of this magnitude could hobble an entire generation unless state leaders quickly work to reverse the slide. Any reasonable approach would include: diagnostic testing to determine what children know when they return to the classroom; aggressive remedial plans and an expanded school calendar that makes up for lost instructional time; an outreach effort, without which many disadvantaged students might not return to school at all; and a blueprint for how states will deliver high-quality instruction the next time an emergency prompts a long-term shutdown of the nation’s schools.