In Anaya Sen and Catherine Tucker’s article, “Social Distancing and School Closures: Documenting Disparity in Internet Access among School Children,” attention focused on the unfortunate effects that COVID-19 has had on the quality of children’s education around the country.

As previously discussed in our class, this reading highlights the disparity between students of higher socioeconomic status who are not a part of marginalized communities and students of opposing lifestyles and draws a correlation between higher performing students and access to the internet. The article states, “… in areas where poor and non-white children have relatively lower test scores, such children are more likely to not have access to the internet.”

The arguments within this reading are undeniably valid as they reflect even more evidence to what we, as a class, have already learned about the digital divide and technological disparities among marginalized communities including populations of a lower socioeconomic status.

The rush that the pandemic caused to move learning to fully-remote only highlighted this disparity. Although it is something that has been incredibly unfortunate, it has shown that technology will likely always continue to advance even before most can get their hands on it. 

There is an unrealistic expectation within school districts and various places of education that just because technology is now considered a necessity, it means that everyone has access to it and that is simply not the truth and is unlikely to ever be the truth without government intervention. This unrealistic expectation continues to put lower income and marginalized people at a disadvantage making it harder and harder for them to catch up.