根据下面资料，回答21-25题
After years of murmuring for change in US education, the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming a catalyst for improving the system. America's educational divide is now clearly visible for anyone to see. Discrepancies in quality and access to education are a major source of the economic, social, and racial inequalities that are driving so much social unrest. Whether they come from poor inner-city neighborhoods or the suburbs, the least-educated Americans have been the hardest hit by the pandemic and its economic effects.
Fortunately, economist Thomas Sowell has offered a solution. In his new book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies, he shows that schools with more autonomy and flexibility than traditional public schools are closing the educational divide, providing sorely needed choice, opportunity, and competition. Sowell's careful analysis of the data, which was available before the pandemic struck, shows that students in publicly funded but privately operated charter schools score remarkably higher on standardized achievement tests than do those in traditional public schools. But critics of charter schools would list many reasons, but the main one, Sowell laments, is that public schools simply do not want the competition.
Will the COVID-19 crisis finally change things? There are already positive signs that it has. Last month, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unveiled a new, five-year $ 85 million scholarship fund that will help students from lower-income families in Washington, DC go to schools of their choice. In another promising sign, US Senators Tim Scott and Lamar Alexander recently introduced a bill to direct some of the educational relief funding to school-choice programs. That money would enable lower-income families that are hard-pressed by the pandemic to send their children to alternative schools.
But most telling, perhaps, is the fact that many families and individuals are coming up with their own solutions. Consider the sudden blossoming of pandemic learning "pods", wherein parents get together, find teachers, and form a class for kids in the neighborhood. Of course, learning pods already have enemies of their own, with critics complaining that the practice is unfair, harmful for traditional schools, or available only to those who can afford to hire teachers. But that is all the more reason to make high-quality, effective schools more widely accessible. Stamping out new ideas is not the answer.
the struggle over pandemic-era education is quickly moving to statehouses. In June, as part of the new state budget, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 98, which restricts per-student state funding for charter and public schools at last year's funding levels. The point is to limit charter school enrollments at a time when demand for alternatives to traditional public schools is surging. But with those public schools closing and resorting to remote teaching, students from lower-income households will be the ultimate victims.
How is this going to affect the education of children? Only if we all focus squarely on this question, the pandemic's long-term impact on education could turn out to be highly beneficial.
The criticism of learning pods is mentioned to show_______

A its potential risk to widen the educational divide

B the difficulty to promote innovations in education

C the necessity of broader access to quality education

D the need for tougher regulation in the education sector