Before the pandemic, we knew there was a digital divide in America. But for many, the issue was abstract, unimaginable or simply not their problem.

Enter COVID-19. The need to close the divide can no longer be ignored because students of all ages are locked out from school – not just because of the virus itself, but from lack of an internet connection at home.

Back in 2017, the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee reported that nearly 12 million children lived in homes without a broadband connection, but the problem made few headlines. For the kids on the wrong side of the digital divide, either their families have chosen not to pay for an internet subscription — usually because it costs too much or they don’t see it as worthwhile — or neither fiber nor a cell signal reaches their homes.

The following year, the Pew Research Center found that 15% of U.S. households with school-age children did not have a high-speed connection at home. The study found that 1 in 4 low-income teens lacked access to a home computer. Still, the alarm bells didn’t sound.

Now that students must participate in online learning, it is like a tale of two cities — one where students are engaged and keeping up their grades online, and another where students have no or limited access to the internet. We are progressing from a homework gap to a full-on education gap for children in every community in the nation.