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have an equal education, regardless of their own economic background. As someone whose father worked in warehouse and had a second job as a janitor and had the opportunity to ultimately teach at Carolina, I think that's really something that we need to strive for all the way across the board. The question is how to get there. And I don't think there's any question that equity in funding is the right solution. There are same serious obstacles to this, and I think that the economic disparities between the incomes in the two parts of the County are a serious problem. And a problem for many people who probably aren't here tonight, as one of the previous speakers pointed out. And unfortunately, that's the way that the State and County has decided that we're going to fund our schools in ways to make it difficult for us to graduate the burden over the income scale. But that's the facts that we're faced with. We wouldn't redraw the district lines today to create two districts in which one included the vast majority of the people with an elevated income and the other did not. We wouldn't do that today, but that's the districts we have today. And that results in the inequity in funding that we see. It seems to me that a lot of the motion now is to agree that equity in funding is a goad idea, but that the way to get there is through a special tax in the County schools that would be decided by a referendum. In my mind, that's really a copout. Because I think the end result of that would be, that referendum would be defeated. Maybe it won't, but it might be defeated, and if it is, then everyone in the City schools can pat themselves on the back and say, "We did our best, but the ignorant people out in the County don't really want to spend the extra money to educate their children, and therefore the current situation is in fact a fair one." I don't think it is. I think that it's time for you as Commissioners to turn our back on these fears we have of joining together two different school districts that are somewhat different, and embrace equity sa that everyone has an equal opportunity for education. Thank you. Anne Lutes: I'm Anne Lutes, I have a daughter at Grady Brown, and another one will start next year. I've heard Commissioner Carey say that he proposed school merger to break down the barriers based on an arbitrary line on a map. So I find it sad and ironic that the prospect of merger has only proven just how high those barriers are. Last week I came to the merger discussion, and I felt like I'd stepped back about 20 years into Cold War Berlin. It was enemy territory. I heard a lot of people from Chapel Hill speak against the merger and they had questions and concerns. But their message boiled dawn to one thing - we have what we want, why should we change? Why indeed, they're into the boats not sinking. I also heard a second message more explicitly stated - Orange County has the schools they want. Well I take issue with that. Orange County does not have the schools I want for my children or for any of the children of Orange County, and I and many other parents and many teachers have come to the budget meetings year after year to tell you that, to no avail. But in spite of our lack of success, I don't think these are the schools you want for the children of Orange County either. We have two systems that are separate and unequal, two systems that foster an us versus them mentality that maintains barriers instead of breaking them down. The people of Berlin figured out almost 14 years ago that they were better off without the wall. Isn't it time we did too? Let's tear down the wall and work together for the whole County. Thank you.