why is state funding necessary for schools?

Because schools can't function without it, Chrissy. Schools function as public institutions in the public interest. And if you take away the schools, you will take opportunity away from multiple classes of people. Knowledge is power, Chrissy. As someone once said, "Give me a fish and I'll eat for a day. TEACH ME TO FISH and I'll eat for a LIFETIME.". Having public schools is our society's way of teaching people how to fish- and giving them the means to sustain themselves over the long term.

Because the people with money are mostly old

45% of food stamp recipients are minors and 21% f all children are currently living in poverty.

States created public schools to provide the basics of literacy and mathematics to farm and lower class students, whose parents often had no or little formal education. Today's economy could not run on an uneducated workforce. If we did away with public education, the government would be totally controlled by the rich, like in the past. Private school tuition is thousands a year plus other expenses. One private school in my area charges 20,000 a year for elementary school tuition. The Catholic schools usually charge about $2000 a year for grade school. A top prep school charges $50,000 a year- no joke.

If you want to shrink the number of people who can make intelligent political and economic decisions, and who can work in tech and professional jobs, then get rid of public education. America will return to the realities of the mid 19th century. There's nothing wrong with that, but you may find the adjustment difficult

It isn't.

The better question, why are property taxes used for the school district it was collected leaving poor areas underfunded and staffed with less than stellar teachers? That is just a vestige of Jim Crow.

The state should be able to afford it. Not all families can afford it.

Where else would the money come from?

Because if mean teachers don't degrade 75% of them into feeling worthless enough to being a cashier for life, there will be mass riots.

It's not strictly necessary. However the states determined more than a century ago that an educated citizenry was in the general interest of all.

Weird, huh?

If you think crime is high, now, just try living somewhere the poor are not educated.