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Commissioner Cordon's supplemental tax proposal offers no more guaranteed support than the current countywide properly tax. If over the past few years, the Commissioners had gradually increased the countywide property tax, and in turn, lowered the City district tax accordingly, this discussion would never have been necessary, and we wouldn't find this tremendous funding disparity between the two systems. So let's look at that darn City district tax. How and when did it begin? Who implemented it? It was never voted in, as some people believe? Who was excluded from the better school system when it was first implemented? Historically, is it anything that Orange County can be proud of? And can we look at that tax now and say that it serves our community well, and that it deserves to play a role in our future? Is the district tax a tool that serves our democratic ideals, or a trick of power and privilege to sidestep social equality? Perhaps the proposed educational task force could explore the history of the Chapel Hill district tax, since it's been stated that it won't be spending any time examining what a merged school system would look like. It took courage to utter the word "merger" back in January. But to truly address the current disparity, to account for it honestly, and to correct it, will require courage, commitment, and heart. Thanks very much. Joal Hall Broun: Good evening, and as you know, I'm not going to take up my three minutes at all. I am here, not on behalf of the Town of Carrboro, but I am speaking on behalf of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chapter of the NAACP. We take no position on the issue of school merger because we have members who are for the merger of the school system and who are against the merger of the school system. What we do advocate is a quality education for each child no matter where they live, either in the County or in the City district. What we da find, however disfavored, is the use of the example of bussing for integration purposes as something to be said as an advocate against merger. Because in this case the issue is funding and not integration. Whatever funding mechanism you select or structure that achieves the goal of equal funding in providing a quality education for each child, we support that structure as long as it achieves that goal. And that's what we support. Thank you. Lynn Lehmann: I'm speaking tonight as the PTA President at McDougle Middle School in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School district. The PTA and the School Governance Committee at McDougle Middle School have discussed the proposed merger at several of its meetings, and many members have attended the public hearings. We wish to express a consensus opinion supporting the alternatives recommended by Dr. Neil Pederson in his October 9, 2003 letter to the Orange County Commissioners entitled, "Proposed Options to Merger." Dr. Pedersan's letter outlines thoughtful and creative options that will best serve the students, teachers, administrators, and parents of the two systems. Our consensus is aligned with information obtained by the McDougle Middle School PTA where 88% of 257 teachers and parents who responded to a survey did not support merger. And now I'd like to take off my PTA President hat and put on my mom hat with something that just occurred to me as I was driving over here tonight. And as a mom, I have a deep concern with our high school kids driving and being possibly injured in a car accident on longer than necessary routes to school. And as I was coming over here on old 86 in the rain and the dark, I was thinking about our high school drivers, and concluded that this is not a matter of convenience, but of safety. And no matter how efficient our school bus transportation system is, we will still have high school age