It is time again to vote on the Auburn school budget.

As a past councilor, asking many questions as to how the money was being spent and why from state education employees (by having them attend meetings), I found that information coming from school administrators wasn’t always accurate.

In my last year as councilor, I made a motion to reduce the school budget by $2 million. To my surprise, it passed the council. The school superintendent looked me in the eye and said, “Wow! We could have lived with $1 million.”

That gave me the answer I needed. The money wasn’t about students, although it should have been, since they represent the future.

In all my years of involvement in city government, I have never seen a request for capital improvements on the school or city side of the budget denied by the council. Why, then, are the schools in such disrepair?

The district’s capital improvement program always has funds for repair and upkeep. Where is the money really being spent?

The numbers the taxpayers are being given, with regard to the cost-per-pupil that Auburn spends, are being manipulated to look lower than they really are.

On June 11, I will vote “no” and hope others help send the budget request back to the School Committee. Let them work the numbers again for the best education Auburn’s taxpayers can afford while giving the children what they need, not what the administrators want.

Dan Herrick, Auburn