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stressed in the 1986 merger plan. But such collaboration, which would require mutual respect and a willingness to cooperate between the two systems, has yet to come to fruition. I do support the auditing of each system. However, I do worry that what may be considered an appropriate expense for Chapel Hill may be considered an extravagance for Orange County. Margaret Brown's proposal puts together an educational task force through UNC. Oddly, though, however, it was the UNC elite who instituted the Chapel Hill district tax 95 years ago. The current task force has already stated that it will not consider the merger scenario. Ironically, the huge social question of school merger, which has terribly divided this community, is too difficult and painful to examine. Could this be because the Commissioners have bent to the pressure and political will of the privileged? Commissioner Alice Gordon so generously solves our problem with a supplemental Countywide district tax set at four cents, which would provide Orange County with half of our 2003 shortfall, yet hold Chapel Hill harmless by allowing it to increase the City district tax as needed to fund any unmet needs. One message that echoes among the proposals is that Orange County children need less and the Chapel Hill children will always, for some reason, need more to achieve academic excellence. And that is exactly the attitude that has divided our community. The Commissioners are sending mixed messages and I ask them, are we really One County? Every child in this entire County should be considered equally whether they aspire to go to Yale or taking the challenges of the family farm. Their educational opportunities should be equal. This will only happen when the County Commissioners recognize and acknowledge that rapid growth in Chapel Hill and the resultant higher revenues from the district tax significantly limit funding to the Orange County schools. Had the County Commissioners been taking care of business by addressing this disparity between these two systems, going back to 1986, our children in Orange County would not have to sit at the back of the educational bus. Collaboration will not fix our funding problems. A Countywide district tax will not fix it either. Indeed, this problem will be fixed only when Orange County students are recognized as equals to their counterparts in Chapel Hill. And all of us here tonight recognize ourselves as citizens of the same County. Thank you. Jack Nestor: Good evening. My name is Jack Nestor and I'm the parent of two children attending Grady Brown Elementary in Hillsborough. Tonight I'd like to express my dismay at the way in which this public discussion of a possible school merger has tarn our County community. And I have been equally disquieted by the realization of how distant or detached City and County sentiments have already grown as revealed by merger discussion, dialogues, and diatribe. We find ourselves tonight recognizing a divided County, a County that has institutionally engendered two distinct cultures with two separate sets of expectations. And the question I'd like to pose to you, the Commissioners, tonight is simply where are we going? For the past several years, the parents and teachers of Orange County have pleaded at budget hearings and argued that repeated under funding of the school budget was hobbling our County school system. These pleas were met with the standard explanation from the Board ar the County Manager that County pupils could receive no mare than the amount provided to Chapel Hill students. But behind this explanation, we always found the Chapel Hill district tax, which afforded our neighbors up to 50°lo more local discretionary funding, and in turn, allowed the Commissioners to meet Chapel Hill's school budget fully year after year. So where are we going? Have we grown comfortable with the notion that Orange County students require less? Do Orange County children require less reading recovery? Do we require narrower arts, athletics, foreign language, and advanced placement programs? Do our teachers really deserve lower salaries and such tepid support? If the very idea of merger is swept from the table, where are we going?