If there were one hundred things I could change about the political system, somewhere among them would be the insane idea of financing public services like scho

If there were one hundred things I could change about the political system, somewhere among them would be the insane idea of financing public services like schools/police/firefighting on the community level. It can't be blamed exclusively here – for example I'd assume that the city of Chicago can somewhat freely allocate resources. Differences within Chicago must therefore have other causes. But from what I've read about schools in particular, it appears that current rules were written/voted for by people who aren't just acting for purely selfish reasons. They also seem to have the time horizon of a chipmunk on speed or the CEO of a penny stock. Even if my children went to private school, and I have enough money to know their grandchildren eventually will, too, I'd consider it a good investment for my dynasty for everyone to be at least somewhat literate... That dynasty relies quite heavily on written laws, after all.