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This Viewpoint argues that the COVID-19 crisis offers a unique chance to imagine more equitable societies and education systems. It is also a call to action, to take meaningful action to bring about that desired future. Keywords COVID-19 • Future of education • InequalityIndian novelist/activist Arundhati Roy (2020) has described the current COVID-19 pandemic as a portal. It is a pathway that leads to a reconfigured future, one that must be different from the world we previously knew. The pandemic's disproportionate, tragic consequences for health and livelihoods-for individuals, their communities, and even whole societies-underscore institutionalized forms of discrimination rooted in race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, and abilities.These inequities are patently manifest in education systems around the world. The individuals most marginalized and discriminated against have suffered the greatest from the closure of schools and the efforts to reach students with online instruction. Delivery of education this way illustrates the difficulties posed for students who lack computers or who live in remote areas without electricity or Wi-Fi. These students might not even have space at home where they can work uninterrupted. Furthermore, fundamental services provided by schools have been significantly reduced or unavailable.We cannot go back to this unsatisfactory status quo. COVID-19's lessons compel us to imagine education systems in which students of all ages can thrive. We know that in many communities, schools are basic resource centers, often providing students with their only nutritious meal of the day. More than that, where equipped with a range of basic amenities, I would like to thank Anthony Arnove and Edward McClellan very their valuable editorial contributions.

A review of the funding strategies and priorities of the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford Foundations over the past twenty-five years indicates that although these major philanthropies have adjusted to changing international and national contexts, they continued to engage in the same activities identified by Arnove (1980) in Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism. Th ese foundations claim to attack the roots causes of the ills of humanity; however they essentially engage in ameliorative practices to maintain social and economics systems that generate the very inequality and injustices they wish to correct.

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