When I was told of the plan to remove 50 percent of our autism specialists, I honestly wasn't all that surprised. Just depressed.

I myself am a kid with autism, a minor case of Asperger's Syndrome. I am 13 years old, and in middle school. So I've learned enough to know that two minus one doesn't equal two. But the district seems convinced that this is the case.

Ironic, that those with the most power over our schools don't know simple subtraction. We have 160 kids in the district with autism. We have two specialists. Yet our district seems under the impression that it won't make any difference if we subtract one.

Allow me to underline the basics: One hundred and sixty kids will lose half of the already meager help they have. We no longer have to pay one of the specialists' salary. Imagine if a third of these kids' parents pull their children out because of the lack of the services that an autistic kid requires and sue the school district to pay for their kids' private school tuition. That is hardly cheap.

If we say that private school costs about $20,000 a year, and 50 kids are now going there at the district's expense, then the district has just lost over $1 million.

Nikolai Geier, Corvallis