The 2020 fall semester is still a giant question mark just about everywhere, but one thing is certain: As survey after survey shows, students are challenging the idea of paying full price for a less-than-full experience, even if it’s discounted by scholarships.

One possible result is that students will flock to established online providers. Another emerging probability: A host of entrepreneurial ventures—for-profit and nonprofit—will move from the margins of the higher-ed landscape to play a more central role for students.

While many of their classmates are doing school work at home, three teens walk miles across desolate brown fields in East Idaho picking up rocks. The American Falls High School students spend six days a week scouring the dirt, hauling out stones up to 100 pounds so farmers can plant seeds. 

With Idaho students completing coursework remotely for the foreseeable future, more are filling their days with farm labor and agricultural work. Teens say this is a good way to make money for themselves, or their families, while their schoolwork is flexible and farmers need their help. But educators and farmworker advocates worry it could take a toll on students’ education—or worse, their health.