specifically primary and secondary school, although university is an issue as well
i put this in a comment but:
i think the school issue is difficult. if you go back to school, you will have massive increases in cases and deaths. if you go online only, you put enormous pressure on parents - schools are responsible for feeding many children and often act as daycare. if you do a “hybrid” approach you’ll get the worst of both worlds, except it’ll likely be primarily lower-income children going to school and getting sick, plus more pressure on teachers.
Sending kids back to school will see a whole lot of people getting sick and dying.
Homeschooling isn’t that bad. Will it be worse for poor families? Yeah, of course. But everything is, including this coronavirus.
Ideally we should see redistribution to give parents the time to stay home and help their kids, and to give them the resources they need.
But we won’t. Because deep down, people resent teachers for getting to spend their day taking care of children, and they want them to die of pneumonia.
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Having dead parents is worse.
of course, but that's not nearly as tangible or immediate of an issue so people don't worry about it in the same way
i’m not sure about homeschooling not being that bad. are you really going to leave 5 year olds alone at home every day when you go to work? there’s no way most people can afford to have someone teach their kids one-on-one, and learning in person is hugely important for development in young kids (obviously not as important as not dying).
the issue i see is that people won’t want online school at all. if you have to choose between the very abstract danger of covid and the in-your-face reality of not knowing how to keep your child safe for 10 hours a day, i think many, if not most, will choose in-person school