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inadequate and completely unfair to the County district children. Others have proposed that we appoint a task force to study collaboration between the districts. It is clear to me, reference the merger study from 1986, that collaboration is a buzzword for inaction. While collaboration was discussed and abandoned, the funding disparity between the districts has increased substantially. Collaboration is needed to address issues such as alternative schools. However, foreign language is a State mandate for elementary schools, yet we in Orange County have no curriculum. My children have learned most of their Spanish from their friends for whom this is their native language. Collaboration won't fix that or class size disparities, and it will not equalize the salaries of our underpaid teachers. Merger remains the only mechanism that will permanently fix this funding problem. I challenge any of you to offer another proposal that provides equity and educational opportunity to all of Orange County schools and children and cannot be undone in the shifting political winds of the future. Thank you. Gloria Foley: Democracy has become a wonderful system to me, and over the last couple of months I've grown to really appreciate it and love it for its entirety. It's a system, and as I read the four proposals before us, I find them both interesting and disturbing. Commissioner Brawn's proposal asks for a task force "ta increase the accomplishments of underachieving students and enrich all programming and preserve academically gifted curriculum." I find this curious because I have a deep respect for Dr. Friday and Dr. Grimay. The Chapel Hill schools worked with Dr. Grimay to find a better middle school curriculum and to establish the UNC wing to Smith Middle School. And I wondered, as I read this, how much or how often you read the Chapel Hill report on minority student achievement. Commissioner Jacobs' proposal also asks for a task force and asks for a joint early childhood program. If this joint childhood program replaces the preschool program in the current school systems, I wander if you realize that the transition between pre-K to elementary is very critical. Having pre-K programs in elementary schools where the students will attend makes the transition for the fragile learner successful and easier. What parts of Brown and Jacobs' proposals run the fine line of the statutory responsibilities of the school board? Defining educational policy is why school board members are elected. That's how our democracy works. Commissioner Corey's proposal states, "No student in either system will be involuntarily transferred within three years of a merger date." I again encourage you to read the studies from the UNC re-segregation of schools, where merged systems suddenly had imbalanced schools within a merged system. Commissioner Gordon's proposal is the only proposal that allows citizens to make a choice in this process. This proposal allows Orange County citizens to vote for or against a tax. It allows them to define how much the tax is. Voting is a beautiful and wonderful part of our democracy, even when you don't like the result. If collaboration is important, and it is, then let's have a complete collaboration - a collaboration between the County Commissioners and both school boards. I encourage you again to begin to look at facts and eliminate the rhetoric, no matter haw colorful. I encourage you to look at what was proposed a year ago, and that is working with Philip Boyle with the Institute of Government to establish a collaborative model for constructive communication. Our democracy deserves better than the discourse that has occurred over the last several months - a discourse that has created barrier between neighbors. Our democracy expects publicly elected officials to build bridges between neighbors. Our democracy deserves a complete study of merger to answer the questions up front. Our democracy deserves the equal funding defined in the 1986 report. Our democracy deserves real collaboration from the statutory perspectives of bath the school board and the Orange County Commissioners. Our democracy deserves that the citizens have some type of voting choice in this process.