In Washington, schools are funded mainly by the property tax (levied at the state and local level). In the McCleary case on school funding, the state Supreme Court said that local levies are not dependable and regular enough to be used for basic education. 

So I thought the Atlantic's quick post on the history of the property tax was interesting. The tax originated in England in the time of William the Conqueror and was imported to America by the colonists. It survived the American revolution and revolts over the national property tax levies of the 1800s. How? Because

property taxes were locally spent and collected in the beginning, and often paid for things like roads and canals that property owners would be able to see, and that increased the value of their property.

Similarly, Dartmouth economist William Fischel has written that homeowners are motivated to vote for local levies for schools because if the local schools are better, their home values will increase. That motive does not hold with the state property tax. (Indeed, as school funding has been centralized at the state level in Washington, per-pupil funding has actually declined relative to other states.)

For more on this (and more background on the property tax in Washington) see our June report on McCleary.