NJ parents favor some online learning post-pandemic (Opinion)

There have been a lot of lessons learned during the past 14 months of the COVID crisis. Besides finding out that many of us can do our work from home, about 70% of parents nationwide prefer some type of online learning option once schools fully reopen next school year.

For many parents, it was an extreme hardship having the kids at home especially if the parents both had jobs they could not do from their house. A good number of parents, however, found that having their children in a safe environment, sheltered from the insanity of what goes on in some public schools, reassuring.

The pandemic and panic over going to school, or anywhere for that matter, combined with forced mask wearing by school districts, made many parents more closely scrutinize just what goes on in our public schools.

From teachers' unions holding kids and parents' hostage and making unreasonable demands based on fear and seizing more power, to finding out just what kids are being taught in schools today, parents have opened their eyes to how broken the system is.

A company called Stride Inc. found more of what parents want out of public schools in their recent survey. Many parents want their school district to be able to switch to an online curriculum more seamlessly if another crisis should arise. The education has long needed a complete overhaul of the outdated mode and sometimes poisonous material our schools are actually teaching. Many lessons have to be learned from the past year and there's no better place to start with those lessons than in our public schools.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis Malloy's own.