My son pays about $3500 for a $400,000 home and thinks it is a great bargain.
The twin boys are now in school and out of day care but they save about $200/week on day care when the kids can go to school ($7000+). You get good education for a minimum amount per year in addition to fire, police, building codes, minimum standards, recreation facilities, team sports and a municipal recreation center/YMCA. The more spent on education, the more the property will be worth in the future.
From a return on investment standpoint, it is almost immediate and in 20 years, worth many, many times more. Even old people like myself have no justification to to complain if the money is well spent now even if we have no kids in school.
When he grew up, I complained about the taxes, but did not realize the benifits from living where you got a good education. He had a great school system that was not afraid to spend money if it made sense. His public school had access to a year round "retreat" 150 miles out of town where they had a dining halls, full time cooks where the classes could go to for about a week with the teachers. They had no idea how much they learned by looking at swamp water and measuring trees to calculate board feet of lumber. The teachers also learned.
Much of his sucess is due to the taxes I begrudgingly paid and the good schools. I did not realize it was an investment if you are aware and make sure the money is used well. When he was young, my taxes were a well amount of invested $1500 per year on a $100,000 home, which seemed high. I could have found cheaper taxes, but thank goodness I was "dumb" enough to end up in a good area. (Location!, Location!!, Locationn!!!).