Regarding the Sept. 21 op-ed cartoon “State Agency Bureaucrats” by Frank Shiers:

This cartoon may have had some relevance 10 years ago when it appears to have been drawn (the copyright date says “9-19-2001”), but going into the third year of state budget cuts to meet billion dollar shortfalls, it’s wishful thinking to believe there are gobs of fat and waste to be rooted out of state government spending.

The money for services my 9-year-old daughter receives at her elementary school in Federal Way have been trimmed every year for the last three years due to cuts in state spending in the area of education.

For example, the full-time school counselor that was so nice to my daughter last year did not return this year because that counselor was laid off.

Instead, a counselor that used to be at another school full time is now at my daughter’s school part time and at the other school part time. Please be more realistic and even-handed in your commentary. Thank you.

Craig Hoppler, Federal Way