What’s wrong with running for school committee? Yes, your time put in may outweigh, at times vastly, the stipend. And, like other town panels, a school committee is an easy mark for political ridicule on social media.

For who can’t find fault with the decisions and proposals of a body involved with such big, even majority, chunks of property taxes, and the priceless asset and responsibility of children and their education, including hiring the administrators and staff who keep them safe? Surely, whoever finds fault with a school committee could have done better if they were on there.

When respectful, sans name-calling and uninformed half-truths, criticizing local office holders can be instructive, and bring improvements. But it would also be good for more people to seek to fill the seats. Choice at the polls is good. So why do area towns tend to have few if any takers for school committee, year after year? Sometimes, write-in votes decide a seat. 

The responsibilities cited earlier, from money to children’s education and safety, are also sound reasons for more people to step up and give voters options. Why  not several candidates or, sometimes, how about candidates, period?

And if you are one of the brave few who have ever run, winning or not, for a school seat, thank you for putting yourself out there. If you have held office and, like some over the years, kept a seat no one else would take over, thank you for that extended service.

A thankless office is only thankless until people start thanking you.