A student attending an online class from home on June 22, 2020, in West Bengal, India. | Suvrajit Dutta/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Getting schools open again can be done, but it’ll take a lot of money and a real plan.

When Roy Romer took over as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District after three terms as governor of Colorado in the 1990s, he faced a daunting challenge. The district was 150,000 desks short, forcing kids to use classrooms in shifts on chaotic year-round schedules. It didn’t work well, he says, especially for kids who were already behind and struggling with difficulties at home. He decided there was no alternative but to try to get the facilities students needed.

“We built 137 schools, made it available so every child could have a place in the classroom, and massively changed the course of