America's unequal return to classrooms Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Most American kids have returned to some form of in-person school by now — but low-income school districts are paying a higher price for it. The big picture: Preparing for testing, infrastructure improvements and distancing has cost school districts tens of millions of dollars. And poorer districts have had to freeze hiring and cut entire programs to make it work. "Whenever you have an event like the pandemic, poor communities always get hit first, they always get hit the hardest, and the impact always lasts the longest,” Arne Duncan, former education secretary under Barack Obama, told Axios.