Q: "How Can Public Schools Emerge from the Pandemic Better Than Before?"(ONE QUESTION)

DIANE RAVITCH

Author and historian of education at New York University.

When in-person school resumes this fall, students will return to their classrooms, teachers will be delighted to see their students, and parents will heave a sigh of relief. The hawkers of "Ed-Tech" will find that their vision of an online-immersive future is suddenly harder to sell.

The greatest threats to public education are twofold: the expansion of privatization in Republican-controlled states and the readiness of the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the separation of church and state by legalizing vouchers for religious schools. Voters must not elect legislators who are happy to dispense public funding to privately managed charters or religious schools.

The way to preserve and improve our public schools is if voters throw out those who want to defund and destroy public education.

MICHELE FOSTER

Author, professor, and Henry Heuser Jr. Endowed Chair for Urban

Education Partnerships at the University of Louisville.

The pandemic reinforced things we already knew about U.S. society and schools. The resource gap was on full display: Families with lower incomes had fewer tech devices at their disposal, less broadband access, and parents--more likely to be essential workers--unable to help with online classes.

To emerge from the pandemic better than before, we must support families and children, making sure families have sufficient income, safe housing, adequate food and nutrition. We must provide parental leave, health care, dental care, mental health services, and free or subsidized day care and kindergarten.

We must diversify the teacher corps, invest in teachers, and trust their expertise to do their jobs as professionals and pay...