I found out that the value for tax purposes is actually based on home sales from two years ago, not current. They update the value every three years here, so I am paying more right now than I should, but it will come out in the wash down the road. As a public school teacher in one of the worst funded states for education in the nation, I don't quibble over what I pay. My school district has to cut 18 million dollars from it's budget this next year and a total of 34 million over the next three. Right now I teach three classes a day (95 minutes each) with 36 kids per class. My school of close to 1000 kids is losing 5 teachers. That means that next year, my class sizes will be around 42 kids per class. I teach 7th grade literacy and have a class of special needs students integrated with advanced students. Differentiating for the needs in my classroom is next to impossible.
Now, as a parent, I cannot imagine my children getting a quality education with 42 kids in the classroom. Not only that, but we are going to have two furlough days (which means two days less to plan for educating the students), have a pay freeze, and have less sick days. (I am sitting here typing this as I sneeze and cough, playing hooky because I am too sick to go to school from a cold I got from a student!) So, when I look at taxes that go to support education, I feel like I am paying back for my own education and helping to provide a decent income for the teachers who are overwhelmed and not given enough resources to adequately teach. (I have NO textbook, only 2000 copies a month I can make, and I purchase most of the educational resources I do use out of my own pocket.)
Ironically, I also pay close to $11,000 a year for my own children to go to a private school because I refuse to place them in a public school where about 38% of the students do not speak English as their first language.