An interesting thing happened the other day after a Dallas Morning News editorial about DISD: The editorial board called for people to run against the three trustees up for election in November, and all of the regular blog complainers went silent.

That’s typical of communications these days, since it takes almost no effort or thought to post a complaint about something. But for all the whining and complaining about the job DISD’s administrators and board of trustees are doing, I don’t see a whole lot of people stepping up to run for office. Heck, if past is prologue, most of the complainers probably won’t even vote in an election where it usually only takes about 1,000 votes to be a winner.

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After the jump, a discussion of the problem…

Many of us are uber-concerned about our childrens’ education, but that’s about where it ends. We don’t have time to run for a job that ultimately is beyond full-time, since a parent can corner you anywhere, anytime about the smallest item of his/her child’s education. And the pay is zero, so the people serving on the board basically are working a full-time job for nothing, then presumably working another full-time job to pay the bills. I count myself as part of the problem — I can’t afford to be a trustee and also to stay employed, so I’m choosing to stay employed.

I don’t agree with the decision of the three board members running in November (Leigh Ann Ellis, Ron Price and Edwin Flores) to extend their terms; it was just, flat out, a poor idea. And I tend to think Ron Price and Carla Ranger are well-intentioned but not-up-to-the-task loose cannons, even giving Ranger credit for being right about the election delay.

But other than that, the entire board of trustees appears to have worked hard, worked together (for the most part) and kept educaiton first despite what has to have been one of the most trying periods in DISD’s history — and that’s saying a lot, given the district’s history.

As the DMN suggests, the district would benefit from a vigorous, competitive campaign in November with multiple candidates and lots of issue discussion. But history suggests we’ll be lucky to have two candidates for each seat, and the interest in the races will be close to nothing.

For all of the talk about how people are sick of the DISD board, here’s predicting most people aren’t willing to do anything about it.