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opposed to merger because the Board of County Commissioners, or Moses Corey's proposal, only serves to bloat the school administration and disrupt up to 1,600 children's lives in the very near future. As you may have Hated, there is a very vocal group, a small albeit, vocal chorus for merger. Make no mistake. They do Hat speak for the majority of residents, parents, or voters of C7range County. They say Urange County schools are under funded. Many people in Orange County say, "How can they be under funded when they are the third best funded in the State of North Carolina?" For those who say our opposition is based on fear, excuse me far this, but I say horse puckey. We are speaking from a commonsense stance. This group FICS, Fair Funding in County Schools, is looking at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools with the desire far all that they have. What's saddest about this whale situation is they desire the Board of County Commissioners to levy a heavy tax burden an the backs of the people least able to carry it. Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district's population makes an income aver twice that of the average orange County residents. The people least able to pay will be the very ones required to pay these tax increases. I, for one, don't understand this. It's a Rabin Haod mentality. At least when Rabin Haod robbed, though, he stale from the rich to give to the poor. Here we have a situation, Commissioners, where you as Rabin Hood, are opposing to steal from the have-Hots to give to the needy. Have-Hots, we don't need merger, just better fiscal management and development of our economic development corridor to greater raise revenue throughout the County, for all of Orange County citizens. And this would include Chapel Hill's benefit. This would alleviate the pressure on the private property owner and render the needed revenue to improve our schools. Thank you. Xiaopei Huang: Good evening Commissioners. I am a mother of a three year old and a six year old. Our family moved here last year from Maryland. We chose to live in Chapel Hill because of the cultural richness this town has to offer. Because of the common goal the residents here pursue, which is to give their children the best education. And of course, because of the excellent City school system that reflects such. Therefore, I am appalled at the idea of school merger. The rationale behind the merger is to achieve equity in funding between the school systems, which are number one and number three in the State. But the County schools and City schools serve different areas with different target population. Far example, there are many more immigrant children in the City than in the County. Therefore, in my opinion, the need for funding is not the same. Now, the one presumed benefit from a merger would be saving money by not having to build a third high school in Chapel Hill. But that comes at a sacrifice of more than 45 minutes of our children's time on the bus every day. I am a full-time working mother, and I live in Lake Hogan Farms. If the merger were to happen where our children are most likely to be redistricted to Orange County schools, which means that they will have to take more than 45-minute bus ride instead of going to Chapel Hill High School, which is just a few minutes away from home. I just cannot imagine that my two daughters will have to spend more than 45 minutes every single day all through their high school years while they could have been doing extra-curricular activities. For example, playing sports, practicing the piano to enrich their lives and to enhance their competitiveness. So, in short, school merger, in my opinion, will impact Chapel Hill and Carrboro unfavorably. It essentially will require the school system to be