A year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our internet infrastructure remains ragged and uneven, leaving 21 million Americans, and an estimated one out of five schoolchildren disconnected. The internet is no longer a luxury: it is the pathway to the world of learning and opportunity in the 21st century, and particularly so in the COVID-19 era. The digital divide compounds structural disadvantages of race and poverty, and is the critical educational issue of our time.