The Other Homework Gap: Post-Secondary Education During COVID-19

When we think of the homework gap, we tend to think of grade school to high school and omit the 19.9 million postsecondary students across the country. Like their younger peers, these students have had their education moved online over the past three weeks to abide by social distancing requirements. More than that, they have been displaced from their residences in college dorms and apartments across the country. Sometimes, that means leaving a campus with a reliable and robust internet network and heading to their parents’ home, perhaps to a rural or remote area, or a low-income area that lacks a broadband connection capable of downloading a document, let alone, the requirements of a live, two-way Zoom conversation. Remember, while 79% of American households have a broadband subscription (and those without cite cost as a major determinant) upwards of 42 million Americans lack access entirely. These are the students on which COVID-19 casts a tremendous digital shadow.