The coronavirus pandemic continues to lay bare the vast inequities that underlie daily life in Connecticut. Those differences are not more severe during a national crisis, but they are more visible as communities that have the least struggle to maintain services.

Nowhere is this clearer than in education, where the difference between haves and have-nots in many ways defines the contrast between rich and poor towns. People seek out wealthy suburbs because of their good schools and flee from cities and their supposedly failing schools. That’s an oversimplification of the true situation, but the stark inequities are profound.

In Bridgeport, as much of a have-not as any city in the state, Mayor Joe Ganim is attempting to reallocate some $500,000 to purchase 2,000 laptops so students in higher grades can better access distance-learning programs. Where that money would come from is unclear; it’s not as though Bridgeport has much money to spare. Two thousand laptops is enough for just a fraction of the student body in the state’s largest city, but it’s a good start, and one that’s necessary to ensure students don’t fall further behind while out of class.

Laptops are only the beginning, though; without a connection to the internet, they don’t do much good. The mayor has praised private providers for offering free wi-fi in Bridgeport, which is certainly welcome. But it’s unlikely to last past the current crisis, even as students in better-off towns are overwhelmingly likely to have home-based wi-fi. It’s yet another example of constant, grinding inequality our state and region faces daily.

Some help is on the way in the form of private philanthropy. But 60,000 laptops promised by the Partnership for Connecticut, backed by the Greenwich-based Dalio Foundation and intended for students in the neediest districts, will not be available for at least a month, administrators learned this week.

This illustrates why gaps exist even in a state with many rich people who are eager to give back to their communities. The amount on offer, generous though it may be, is never enough to truly bridge the chasm between what’s available on a regular basis to rich and poor children.

Consider that there are about 20,000 students in Bridgeport public schools. Many families likely have the wherewithal to have their own laptop and internet connection, but many don’t. Also, many students in the youngest grades may not yet need a laptop. That still leaves a huge chunk of students in need of assistance and would take up many of the 60,000 computers on offer.

Then consider Bridgeport is only one city. There’s Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven, Ansonia, Norwalk and many other cities with a large number of students in need. There are children without laptops in otherwise rich towns.

And a laptop hardly solves everything. Many children go to school hungry every day. Some come from difficult home environments. Philanthropy alone is not going to solve these problems.

The coronavirus outbreak did not create the inequities we see between school districts so vividly as everyone adjusts to a life of distance learning. But they are starker than ever. And though the virus will eventually disappear, the differences will remain.