Governor: No more classes this school year

Gov. John Bel Edwards said he signed a proclamation Wednesday that will keep schools closed through the end of the 2019-20 year.

Public schools were closed by Edwards' order of March 13, and private schools quickly followed suit.

Edwards said at his daily press conference that the order puts an end only to the physical presence of students this school year.

Learning must continue to keep children from regressing during the long break before classes can resume again.

School districts have coped with the long closure with what Edwards called "low-tech" and "high-tech" remote learning -- paper lessons sent home for students and online learning.

Access to the latter is complicated by the digital divide, the lack of internet access in many low-income and minority homes.

"You know that in lower-income homes you'll have fewer devices in the home, whether they are smart phones or computers and that sort of thing," Edwards said. "And so you know there are certain parts of the state that are unable to do that as efficiently as other parts."