It may have been due to the freezing cold rain, but I was sorely disappointed by the Federal Way Public Schools education rally, “No More Cuts,” Nov. 22 at Federal Way High School.

One by one, community leaders gave rousing speeches about the importance of education while the crowd cheered. Ignoring the foolishness of meeting outside in the rain instead of inside the empty high school, I was shocked that not one of our community leaders offered a single solution to the budget crisis.

Mayor Skip Priest rallied the crowd, but he didn’t offer to exempt the district from city taxes. Sen. Tracey Eide spoke to the importance of education, but she didn’t offer another area of the state budget that should be cut to spare schools. Superintendent Rob Neu, School Board President Tony Moore and local teachers all got the crowd cheering, but not one of them offered to have the park near their homes closed, or police cut from their neighborhoods, or their taxes be raised in order to save school funding.

While I respect each of these community leaders, I kindly request that they replace their slogan of “No More Cuts” with “No More Rhetoric.” Our schools, city, state and nation need viable solutions, not campaign speeches. When you are ready to find solutions, please give me a call.

Matthew Jarvis, Federal Way