Leo asks: " . . . but is it not the case that the problem here extends far beyond different valuations of single family dwellings, to the issue that multiple dwellings (i.e., apartment houses), predominant in urban settings, bring in a lot less revenue than single family dwellings, predominant in suburban settings?
Not necessarily. Urban space is more scarce and more built up, so property tax revenues could be higher rather than lower; a mitigating factor could be concessions of one type or another granted to commercial property. Landlords and developers seem to have an outsize role in urban politics, in contrast to suburban bedroom communities.
Leo again, regarding rainy day funds: "But do we know of any locality which, under pressure from the Repugs to lower taxes, actually does that? This is one of the reasons why public education advocates are cautious about changing education revenue streams to the more 'volatile' taxes."
States do it. I'm not sure about localities. I do know that localities use bond finance, which is a different way of coping with cyclical variations in revenues, since it makes expenditures financed by own-source revenues less 'lumpy' with respect to time.
Leo: " . . . My point was more along the lines that public education advocates and equity advocates are going to be reluctant to invest a lot of very limited political capital in simply having the state become responsible for the education revenues, if it is as likely that some of the very same problems would reappear in a completely state based system. And even if the state based system worked perfectly in terms of intrastate equity, they would still not address the problems of interstate equity. Heaven help the children of Mississippi!"
mbs: There are few guarantees all the way round. Regarding your final comment, intrastate variation is much greater than inter-state. So state to local policy, or lack thereof, is more eventful than Federal policy, except where the latter affects state-to-local policy.
Leo: " . . . IMHO, if we are talking about questions of how to build such multi-racial, multi-class popular coalitions . . .
mbs: I agree that gimmicks do not fix the fundamental problem of what people think and how they are organized.
mbs