Haven't read all the post here yet... but my son loves distance learning, or rather the fact he doesn't have to go to physical school..but he is still doing well with the distance learning. Our school district transitioned fairly well to the distance learning as they had some plans in the works already, but it is obvious a lot of other districts were in no way prepared to do this and kids are not getting any real instruction. But I really like that the students can work at their own pace without disruptive students slowing them down, have flexibility of when to start the learning, and have the freedom to take breaks as needed.
Will have to see what happens in the fall...but this has been interesting to show an alternate way of learning. Even if it only gets used on snow days or if a school has a maintenance issue, that school can still continue...even if a kid is mildly sick or on vacation that they could still keep up. Yes, there will be many rages against losing the 'fun' of a snow day.
One of the biggest financial issues across the country has been building and upkeep of physical school buildings... I think this will show that in the future that those buildings may not be needed.
One complaint against that will be social interaction... but that can occur outside the learning time, especially if school days are shortened due to not having to travel to school, move between classes, etc. Even in a world where the virus isn't rampant, there could be organized field trips. I don't think being forced to sit in a room with other kids is necessarily beneficial social interaction, especially with all the bullying that happens in schools. The flip side to that being kids who come from not great home lives, where school is an escape from that.
And of course is the 'daycare' aspect of schools so that parents can work and have younger kids supervised for a large portion of the day.. but if physical schools are reduced/eliminated, then the tax money from those could go towards child care of some kind for those who need it.
Extracurricular activities can all be done at the community level.... again, maybe funded by the freed up tax dollars.
Of course, none of that is going to happen very soon, but think this outbreak has shown the possibilities of what could happen.
As to the coming fall, it will be a wait and see. These re-openings will tell what is going to happen over next few weeks. No one really knows how it is going to play out, despite the number who think they do. I don't like the theory that infection rate is low for kids, so it's ok to be crammed together in schools.... we see how colds/flu propagate rampantly in schools as it is.. sure don't want my son in potential epicenter of outbreak.