Ok temp name change so that I can post in more detail than I otherwise might
*There are clearly some people who it suits to have their children at home, and who are having a great time. (I know of some home-education-curious families who took the opportunity to try it out with no pressure in the March lockdown and who have since deregistered as they found it worked well.) None of that takes away from the fact that many, many people are not equipped/ prepared/ resourced/ temperamentally suited to it.
If I were in government, and I wanted to save money in the future, I'd be looking seriously at the idea of a permanent online school for those who want it though. Would have to think about how things like labs would work, but there are clearly parents who'd prefer it, and it would be a lot cheaper. (Might also help to improve the currently very patchy provision for children unable to attend school due to illness.)*
We home educate and it's a bloody nightmare doing it without face to face support of the network we've built up. The majority used to be out of the house. Classes and workshops, visits to museums to tie in with what we were studying etc.
My kids are older. We did all the creative stuff when they were younger. The baking, the nature walks, the kitchen science etc. It was great.
What we have here is nothing like what any of my children are used to and it's taking its toll. Before the schools closed, one of my children asked to go, because they've missed knowing they'll see friends nearly every day. If our community can't get back on its feet as quickly as schools, due to ongoing restrictions, that will be happening.
We're very lucky with where we live but for science experiments were had some fab resources locally so that we didn't have to worry about having all the right kit. We've just got my eldest through GCSE science and they probably got more lab time than school peers did. Of course now, just like everyone else, the best we can do it watch them on YouTube and trying to tell my kids that it doesn't matter if they're not impressed, just get on with remembering it is not holding much water.
I'm very wary of the impact that long term govt online offerings could have. There was a play a few years ago by a company to try to get less flexibility brought in for home educators and of course they just happened to run an online offering that people could be compelled to sign up for. We're probably quite a large market, but quite cash poor in general and tend to be careful with what we sign up to, but worth tapping into if extra govt funding could be hived off, along with a narrowed market of just a few companies that have been licensed to meet any new demands that could be brought in.
Of course as an optional service for children who aren't thriving in school and don't or aren't able to home educate, I would absolutely welcome an online school. There are probably many reluctant circumstantial home educators who are doing a fabulous job but would flock to it.