WANTED: Lunatics to run for school committee
Okay, I admit it, you have to be a little crazy to want this job, but you can make a real difference in our community and impact the education of 14,000 children—meaningful work, sometimes 3-4 nights a week, for a whopping $6,000 a year. The biggest risk? Repeated written floggings in the local newspaper. (Warning: articles, editorials, and columns can be vicious, but no physical harm results unless you count wrenching your shoulder while flinging the newspaper across the room.) The value of an elected school committee is that we are accountable to the public, and every two years, we must stand before our community and ask voters for their support. Has education improved under our leadership? Has the welfare of children been our primary focus? The problem is each term less people choose to run. One theory is that it’s scary and a lot of work to put your name on the ballot and run a good campaign, which is true (more on that in a later post). Another reason, of course, is the way certain media leaders will treat you. Depending on how malleable you are to their will, they may be fair for a minute if you stay in line and they don’t see an opportunity to improve circulation at your expense. But if you are a person who follows your own convictions, expect to get barrels of ink thrown your way with little regard for truth, logic, or fairness. I’m not talking about simply disagreeing with a position or a particular vote—that’s expected as a healthy component of a democratic society. I’m talking about relentless, repetitious negativity that borders on obsessive. Now some might argue, who in their right mind would submit themselves to that kind of abuse and why would they? Well, I’ll have to get back to you on that.