Money, in its purist form, is a means to an end. But with lack of the means, money turns into the cliched “Route of all evil.” Enter the Auburn City Council, School Committee and this year’s budget.

The two sides have been compared to David and Goliath, but assertions that have been proposed do not produce an end without raising the means.

Most of the assertions regarding the budget have been stated in the Sun Journal before, but these assertions have been slanted by a School Committee that wishes to squeeze more money each year out of the city budget to please Superintendent Barbara Eretzian’s administration.

Since talks started, the School Committee says that the City Council is cutting $1.4 million from the 2004-05 school budget. In fact, the School Committee produced a budget that is $1.4 million larger than last year, after the City Council told them that there would be no tax increase and, in turn, no room for a larger budget. It is not the City Council cutting the school’s budget; it’s the School Committee asking too much.

I don’t understand how the same budget as last year means so many cuts, where did this money get displaced from last year? How is the school system able to pay for the teachers and programs this year, but forced to put them on the chopping block for next?

Sources say the School Department has lost 24 teaching positions over the last three years, yet the upper administration continues to get raises with each budget. The superintendent now makes more than $100,000 a year, plus other allowances. There must be part of a teacher’s salary buried within the confusing legal language of the budget that could be saved by finding other ways to “cut.”

As a recent graduate of Edward Little High School, I have seen the top-heavy administration first hand, and it is absolutely ludicrous. No more than two assistant principals and the principal do much to promote the welfare of the student body. The rest walk around and make sure that students have passes to go to the bathroom, thus keeping the school safe from dangerous bathroom breaks.

Further research into the conduct control at EL shows empty assertions about the number of students coming to school high and drunk. When I was at EL, no more than a handful of students came to school high, and I never saw anyone come to school drunk. If these assertions are true, than the overstaffing of deans and principals isn’t working.

Other schools (Lewiston and Leavitt) have problems similar to EL’s, and they succeed with a smaller administration at the high school level. Why does EL have so many “problems” with a huge administration that is supposed to take care of them? I believe it’s called the “I-rub-your-back-you-rub-mine” theory.

Fourteen and a half teaching positions will be cut; there are different cuts that could be made. Most of these teachers work extremely hard for the peanuts they earn, and it doesn’t make sense to drop programs and positions while raising salaries and maintaining the hierarchy.

I have spoken to teachers who believe that 23 students in a class would not be hard to deal with instead of 19. I am not talking about kids who are in kindergarten, students at EL are students who are preparing to go to college. If students cannot handle a class size of 23, then they have more problems than finding a place to sit in Spanish.

Tying economic growth within the city of Auburn to the appeal of the school system is irrelevant. The only connection would be positive property tax revenue that the School Committee longs so much for to begin with.

Bangor Savings Bank, Lowe’s and the other business to eventually break ground in Auburn are not going to look at the school system and say they don’t want a part of this town.

In the past 10 years, the enormous effort to turn Auburn in the right direction has received much criticism; this is because of lack of knowledge. Do people realize that the city did not pay for those “canopies?” Do people like to live in an undeveloped dump?

This side of the bridge has grown from one half of the “Armpit of Maine” to a respectable community to call home, with the schools included in this equation (consider the recent city funded EL expansion).

Pessimists said that no one would ever stay at the Hilton, yet it is constantly running at 90 percent capacity with plans in the future to expand. Everything takes time, sacrifice and money.

With money backing every decision made within a city, it is easy for the School Committee to sit back and say “You cannot put a price on good quality education,” yet they are willing to limit the education of students in Auburn by cutting the budget in all the wrong places.

Andrew DeFilipp is a third-year mass communications and public relations major at the University of Maine at Orono. His father, Joseph DeFilipp, is a member of the Auburn City Council.