You got it right. Republicans want more power in private hands so they decide most things. It's also voluntary as you said.
Thanks for the information about Switzerland's local-first model of taxation. That's really interesting. It might help us over here for the exact reasons you said.
As you might expect, they have some of the best infrastructure in Europe, and attribute this partially to the local control. I would be much more willing to vote for infrastructure taxes if they were tied to a specific local project I could see with my else than some nebulous promise.
There is an inverse example in California school spending.
In 1972, California Senate Bill 90 (SB 90), was passed in 1972 to place limitations on using local taxes to fund local schools and centralize school funding at the state level. In 1978, citizens responded by passing now famous Proposition 13 to set statewide limits on property taxes.
SB 90 weakened the link between what property owners paid and the quality of their local schools. This made residents less willing to property taxes and fund schools at all, since they had less say in how the money was spent.
The better school districts in California are now tied to private organizations to get around both SB90 and prop 13. Local parents pay into a non-governmental fund that will purchase buildings and run programs in the schools, allowing their money to stay local.
Thanks for the information about Switzerland's local-first model of taxation. That's really interesting. It might help us over here for the exact reasons you said.