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In a lot of rural areas, like mine, EMS and Firefighters are volunteers. We hold fundraisers for their equipment. LEO are poorly paid, although probably 2x the average per capita for the area, it is still only about $24k-$30k, plus ok benefits and I hear more complaints than gratitude about their union. It used to be rare that a rural LEO even drew their gun. Today, we have an influx of perps from the large urban areas looking for new hunting grounds.

We have declining enrollments, due to demographics. Our one small town of under 4500 residents (another 27k in the county) has 5 private schools, 3 of them religious. This reflects dissatisfaction with the schools, but the parents still pay property taxes.

Administrators make the standard $190k plus generous benefits and function as grants facilitators, for the most part. Teachers make about the same as LEOs, although some can crack $50k, with extra assignments like coaching, especially if they have a Master's.

However, taxes are high on all but agriculture land. A rural
5 acres with a new, large, modern home can be taxed at 3x the amount of an 80-acre grandfathered former farm that hasn't yet changed owners. That retired farmer pays about the same as the homeowner in the town with a smallish corner lot and an old Victorian home.

The services for water, sewer and garbage pickup in the town are expensive. In the country, we pay for our own well, septic and hauling our separated trash to the dump, where we pay extra of disposal of some items, like old appliances.

Now, the taxes are mandated by the State. The teachers are paid from those taxes and the politics are such that no one who is in business for themselves or who is in private professional practice will even run for the unpaid School Board positions, because when the taxes go up, the taxpayers take it out on the Board members with boycotts aimed at economic marginalization.

So, we have taxation w/o representation for the schools. We have the usual liberal indoctrination, although, parents have been able to get some of the most egregious teachers fired. However, there are social/economic consequences for mobilizing against such teachers. Basically, advocating for non-indoctrination in education in rural areas can have huge repercussions for those willing to stick their neck out. Your children will be subject to hateful comments, fights, and grade retaliation; you will not be able to obtain some business services if the contractor is related to any teacher; your practice and business will be boycotted and talked down and you may find that the various water, sewer and trash employees go out of their way to find you out of compliance with ever-increasing ordinances, as will the Historic Preservation Nazis and the Main Street sign ordinance commissars.

This is a huge national problem. It is eating up tax money, providing barely acceptable to failing services and polarizing communities. There are no local solutions that are palatable to the majority, state solutions are totally dependent upon political majorities and ultimately, a Governor's veto or signature.

Once upon a time, teachers were respected. Today, they are resented, except for a very few, very gifted individuals nearing retirement. Once, we all were persuaded to vote for school bonds. Today, if we vote one down, it is just recycled and presented over and over until there is an election with low turnout or vote fraud, where it passes. Then it is guaranteed to turn out that the amount of money allocated is inadequate, supplementals are discovered to be buried within the original bond language (sometimes in perpetuity) and taxes rise independent of state mandates. To add insult to injury, within 5 years of such referendums, the very same schools will be consolidated or closed due to falling enrollment.

It is a mess.

"I hope you never need EMS, Fire, or Police services....It would be a shame to have to be indebted to people whose wages you "

I repeat I begrudge every dollar government collects from me....I want to make sure it is spent wisely and only for necessary items.

Just because certain people in certain jobs, in the course of doing their duty, might do something for me, the person who provides for their paycheck does not mean that their paycheck should be infinitely large. Just because a teacher teaches one of my kids does not mean that gov't largesse ought to be granted to them.

It's really a simple concept. That the elegance of limited government - and necessarily limited government services - is lost upon those who feed at the gov't trough is no surprise, really.

But, I do financially support my volunteer EMS & Fire Depts.

They do a good enough job and are an excellent value for the taxpayers of my area - and unlike the EMS, Fire, or Police services that you envision, serve all the people in my area, regardless of whether they financially support them.