The pandemic has revealed many gaps in addressing equity issues. While there is hope that in a few months things will normalize to a great degree, there may some motivation to address the problems that have been revealed.
The challenge of engaging all students in distance learning brings attention to a less visible problem that was previously described as the homework gap. As many as 9 million K12 students are without broadband access from their homes. It has become clear just what a significant problem this is with many students just disappearing as schools attempt different strategies to involve them in online learning. The homework gap was the phrase used to describe this same problem before students were forced into learning at a distance. These same students had previously lacked the opportunities to use the Internet to complete assignments at home and were limited in a more general way by this lack of access. The same would be true for their parents. The end of the pandemic will leave them in this same place.
A recent report The Online Learning Equity Gap examines this issue anew and proposes that the FCC could address this issue by an expansion of the e-rate program. With the new administration, the report proposes that the FCC may now be willing to increase funding so that this problem can be addressed.