For some colleges and universities, the decision to bring back in-person research and instruction this fall is a matter of basic economic survival. But even where it is not, the pandemic crisis threatens the essence of college life. No distance-learning program, regardless of how well thought-out or planned it is, can replace the interactions among students, faculty and others that normally take place on college campuses.

Hoover Institution fellow Lanhee Chen discusses his Townhall piece "The Schools: A Key to America’s Reopening."

This year’s holiday from federally-mandated end-of-year assessments in math and English language arts will undoubtedly embolden test haters to declare once again—and louder than ever—that we never needed those damned exams in the first place and that our schools and students are far better off without them. Thus will commence another skirmish in a war on testing that rivals the Seven Years War.