Leaving a school district behind

What happens when voters - or at least a slim majority of voters - decide to leave their schools behind? Well, it's what the school system in Jacksonville, Ala., is in the process of discovering.
A little background: Jacksonville is a college town in Northeast Alabama. The public school system has excelled far beyond the meager local funding it receives. Per-pupil spending - $5,600 - is rated poor by the state, which provides two-thirds of those dollars. Local funds account for about one-fifth of the budget.
When the school put a request to raise property taxes by 9 mills before voters in January, the answer was disappointing. "Say No to Liberal Taxes And Spending," anti-tax yard signs began to sprout up and on Election Day voters turned down the request.
And now as the financially squeezed district is cutting out programs – drivers ed, German, choir – and making do with outdated computers, the public is starting to complain. The city is talking about annexing more property in order to raise more tax revenue. In short, the school’s spending needs, as The Anniston Star noted, weren’t so "liberal" after all.
OK, you say, this just one small Southern town. But isn’t this a piece of a larger puzzle, especially throughout the South? If a college town with an outsized portion of the population that knows the value of quality education rejects what would amount to an extra $90 a year on a $100,000 home, what does that say?
Have citizens heard the cries of anti-tax crowd so long that they’ve come to believe them no matter the evidence? Are these the children of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who made tax-cutting a centerpiece of their administrations? Are buzzwords - “liberal taxes and spending” - all it takes?
Cracking this code is the chief task for progressives interested in educating students for a globalized economy?