If you don't pay for talent, you ain't getting it.
This is a negative feedback loop and there's no way out of it.
The entire political scene of SF and California dictate the makeup of SFUSD so I think it goes hand in hand. I think the fact that moderate centrists finally showed up to vote out the SFUSD board members and Boudin are an indication of what comes over the next few years. I hope the progressive extremists get kicked out of the Dems and get replaced by moderate centrists like what we've seen in the last year.
The OP talked about wasting $2 million on renaming schools over perceived injustice (the plan to rename Lincoln was probably the worst idea they've ever perpetuated). You can't point back to underfunding when the school is wasting funding on extremists
A lot of right wingers like to say “see look what libs do!” but I’ve lived in very blue cities like Boston that seem to be significantly better run. San Francisco just seems peculiarly dysfunctional in its own unique way.