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the later." In Rose vs. Council for Better Education, the Supreme Court of Kentucky found that "Students in property poor districts receive inadequate education opportunities as compared to those offered to those students in the more affluent districts." In Abbott vs. Burke, the Supreme Court of New Jersey noted that "all of the evidence of high quality education in the richer suburbs....attests to the role money has in producing it." According to the Supreme Court of Michigan in Milliken vs. Green, "Disparities in expenditures may indeed contribute to disparities in educational programs offered." It is well known among educational policy makers that reliance on local property wealth far funding public schools creates fiscal inequities. Yet there are those who will argue that there is no proof that expenditures correlate with academic achievement. Well, if this is the case, perhaps the County Commissioners could determine that the City district should be funded solely through the City district tax, thereby allowing sufficient funds to finally fully fund the County school system. But according to an article by John Dayton in the Journal of Educational Finance, 19, "Statistical correlations of expenditures and standardized test scores provide limited information about whether expenditures affect educational opportunity. As the Supreme Court of California noted, `Quality cannot be defined wholly in terms of performance on state-wide achievement tests, because such tests do not measure all the benefits and detriments that a child may receive from his educational experience.' If standardized test scores were the only hallmark of quality of educational opportunity, it would make little sense far the wealthiest schools to offer their diverse curricula with courses other than those needed to improve standardized test scores. Achievement and opportunity are not the same thing. Constitutions cannot guarantee equal achievement. Instead, constitutions address equality of treatment and educational opportunity." That is what we ask of you. Please have the courage to give our students an opportunity to achieve what they may be able to achieve. Right now, you never know. Thank you. Tim Godley: We really need to stop meeting like this. This is getting to be a bad habit, and my friends are really starting to worry about me. All kidding aside, I want to take this time to thank Commissioners Gordon, Jacobs, and Brown for listening to the public comment. I was very encouraged at the last Commissioners' work session an the school merger issue. I was extremely impressed that you really heard the public. Much of what we said was heard and reiterated in your individual proposals. I feel that you are trying to negotiate a compromise as a win-win for everybody. You have renewed my faith in the system. I support Commissioner Gordan's proposal, specifically because it is aggressive in trying to correct the funding inequity as soon as possible and it cuts to the chase as it relates to the dollar amounts. Her proposal also outlines steps towards collaboration. I support Commissioner Jacobs' proposal because it supports an educational task force that calls for a vote an a countywide supplemental school tax. I support his proposals because he has came up with a number of ideas on collaboration. I support Commissioner Brown's proposal far an education task farce whose aim would be to preserve and enhance the superior quality of education in both school districts. I have enjoyed listening to Commissioner Halkiotis' colorful commentary. Of course, I do not support Commissioner Corey's proposal for merger, especially in light of all the creative alternatives to merger, nor do I support the boycott. What did the boycott accomplish anyway? I must admit that before all of this started, I could not even name two of the Orange County Commissioners. As you can imagine, that has all changed now. I have learned a lot about the Orange County Commissioners and school merger issues, and armed with this information, don't you know that I'm going to vote in the primary. Thank you.