It’s not simply a matter of subpar or nonexistent Internet or computer access, something that impacts students from more than 4 million households. Small children, as it turns out, will not sit in front of a computer to listen to a teacher or complete an assignment without supervision. That means millions of parents — for the most part, moms — got conscripted as unpaid teacher’s assistants. And while older children don’t need parents next to them in order to do their work, they often won’t do it regardless.

Plus, children receive emotional support in school, both from teachers and socializing with peers. Minus that, parents report their school-age children are experiencing increased moodiness, and difficulties regulating behavior and their attention…

All of this could have, and should have been known. Despite the proclamations of Silicon Valley that tech would revolutionize and improve education, the opposite reality has been apparent for years. A 2015 study of online charter schools by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, determined that students did better in math and reading when attending in-person schools, and concluded, “academic benefits from online charter schools are currently the exception rather than the rule.” One of the study’s authors, in a call with reporters, said the math results were so dismal it appeared as if “the student did not go to school for the entire year.”