Did any of the Auburn city officials learn to subtract in school?

Four decades of population decline in Auburn; less and less students, year after year; yet in 2013 it took three times for voters to approve an honest School Department budget. Department officials cannot make a cut anywhere and the department sprints to the bank with a little more than $37 million.

Year 2014 rolls around and, all of a sudden, there are 120 extra personnel on the payroll. That information was revealed the very day of the 2014 budget vote. The school superintendent boasts that she understands the people’s confusion. She adds differently, like Bernie Madoff.

So the School Department dances to the bank with a little more than $38 million.

Maybe with that proficiency-based diploma, everyone will balance their check books differently.

Can anyone say online learning? I can. Teachers’ jobs and brick and mortar schools will go the way of the shoe workers and shoe shops. Besides, it is just too dangerous to send children to school anymore. When a 16-year-old can bring a town to its knees for three days with a cyber-threat, it screams for change; it demands it.

Online learning right in the home, safe from bus accidents, bullying, gun fire … enough.

Online learning — who knows — city officials might learn how to subtract.

Will Auburn officials make drastic cuts? Don’t bet on it.

Jeffrey Keenan, Auburn