Property Taxes fund our primary education. This practice started because in the 19th century because all of our wealth was in our houses. It made sense then because rich people would pay more, the middle class would pay less, and poor people would pay nothing. We also weren't separated into different cities back then either. Now it doesn’t make sense because we are broken up into little tax enclaves and school districts. If a district is poorer then they have a lower tax base and less money for students. You are ruined by the sheer chance of your birth.
It has created a system where inner city and rural schools spend around $10,000 or so per student on average and are usually staffed by unqualified rookie teachers while the schools are falling apart. Go down the road to a suburban or exurban school and you will see state of the art buildings, Olympic sized swimming pools, and Broadway quality theaters. On top of that, they are spending about double per student that the inner city school is spending and they have the best teachers in the state. This is what local funding of schools does.
Each state should take the initiative to equalize funding for schools while the federal government takes a bigger role in finance, say 30%, up from the current 10%. This would allow them to lower property taxes and increase funding for lower income schools. While we are at it, we should offer the best teachers higher pay to come to the worst schools, where they are needed the most. The best teachers that teach in needed subjects in high need areas should be able to retire millionaires, making upwards of $100,000 - $150,000 a year. Combine this with making it easier to fire bad teachers and higher standards for teachers and we can go a long way to ending the pre-birth lottery than dooms many students from day one.