Auburn Ward 3 School Committee member Tom Kendall’s assertion that Auburn residents “are fully in favor” of the proposed 5.1 percent school budget increase is grossly inaccurate, which I will illustrate on May 10.

I am one resident who believes if you can’t teach Auburn children to read in early grades or graduate in four years under the current spending, then no amount of extra spending will improve that.

What is needed now is common sense from rational grownups who realize the spending must stop. This is not the time for any sort of increase.

Auburn taxpayers may not be able to control what they pay for gas; they may not be able to control the cost of groceries; but they can control whether or not their property taxes increase by voting “no” on the school budget increase May 10.

It’s a new day, a day for grownups to apply the maxim, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Aric Fogg, Auburn