The San Francisco school board has drawn all sorts of national attention over the past few years, almost entirely for exactly the wrong reasons. Even some of the most liberal activists and officials have been forced to admit that the board has turned itself into a laughing stock by focusing its efforts on liberal, feel-good gotcha maneuvers rather than doing the jobs the board members were elected to do. While other school districts around the country were struggling to find ways to get kids back into their classrooms in 2020 and 2021, the San Francisco school board spent its time renaming schools with “offensive” names such as George Washington. There were also distinct elements of anti-Asian racism on display. The ongoing clown show eventually became too much even for the residents of one of the bluest, most liberal cities in the country, and a recall election was scheduled for the President of the board and two other board members. (The rest of the board hasn’t served long enough to be eligible for a recall under state law.) That vote takes place on Tuesday and the outcome is far from certain. (Associated Press)

A seemingly endless amount of drama, name-calling, lawsuits and outrage from parents and city officials have made the saga of San Francisco’s school board a riveting pandemic sideshow that is about to play out at the ballot box.

A special election on Tuesday will decide the fate of three school board members, all Democrats, in a vote that has divided the famously liberal city. It has also motivated many Chinese residents to vote for the first time, driven by controversial school board decisions and a batch of unearthed anti-Asian tweets.

The parents who launched the recall effort say it was born of frustration at the board’s misplaced priorities, mishandling of a budget crisis and failure to focus on the fundamental task of reopening public schools during the pandemic.

In addition to all of the school renaming nonsense, opening up the district to national mockery, the board’s other controversial moves generated a lot of anger in the city. One of the worst was the decision to end merit-based admissions at Lowell High School. Lowell is considered to be among the most elite high schools in the country with nearly 100% of its graduates going on to be admitted to prestigious universities. The majority of the students there are Asian and the board concluded that the merit-based admission process must be “racist.” The change to the admissions process was later overturned in court.

On top of that, one of the board members up for recall, Alison Collins, who is Black, was found to have tweeted anti-Asian slurs in previous years. That news, combined with the dismantling of the Lowell admissions program that was “so blatantly discriminatory against Asians,” (as one Asian mother of Lowell students put it) was clearly a bridge too far for many. A group formed to push back against the board has been running advertisements in support of the recall effort in local, Chinese-language newspapers and registers hundreds of new voters in the Asian community.

Even the city’s very liberal mayor, London Breed, has been compelled to weigh in on the recall effort, saying “Sadly, our school board’s priorities have often been severely misplaced.” That’s some awfully gentle criticism in light of the board’s insane antics, but when you’ve lost London Breed, you’ve clearly walked yourself far enough out on the plank that there may not be a path to get back on the ship.

Breed could wind up playing an important role in this drama. If any of the three board members wind up being recalled, the Mayor will be tasked with appointing their replacements who will serve until the next general election. And even Breed seems to be getting the message that there actually is such a thing as too much liberal craziness for even San Francisco to tolerate.