I’ve always been the one out of my group of friends to say, “Pay your taxes and stop complaining,” but in late August of this year I found myself wondering if I was giving good advice.

I have a 5-year-old son who attends kindergarten at an elementary school in Auburn and our day care is 0.42 miles from his school. We recently found out that the Auburn schoolbus system will pick up children who live or are cared for only if they are a half-mile or farther from the school.

I don’t know about other parents, but I don’t think there are many who would let a 5-year-old walk 0.42 miles to school, on a street that would put that child out of sight after about 200 feet.

Why am I paying thousands of dollars per year in property taxes and cannot get transportation to school for my own son, while there are people who pay no taxes and get schoolbus service for free because they live just a fraction of a mile farther away?

My wife teaches in Lewiston and I work in Brunswick. Every day of the week one of us is late for work because we have to take turns dropping our son off at school. We can’t drop him off until 8:15 a.m. because there are no teachers outside before then.

Could I please, as a paying customer of the city of Auburn, get some service?

Christian Breau, Auburn