It is not that government doesn’t spend enough. It is what it gets spent on. Administrative costs at the district level- assistants to the assistant and so forth- are a big problem. Also, the staggering salaries of school superintendents and the like- a single such person usually comes at the price of several teachers- which do you get the most use out of? Also, efficiency- the sheer amount of paperwork as well as useless things that do not pertain to the classroom- means that the taxpayer’s buck is not being spent on what it is raised for. You pay a guy to teach history- not do paperwork or fill out reports, nor to babysit malcontents. To require such is wasting the taxpayer’s money.
Incidentally- not all of us are union thugs, liberals, communists or other such trash, nor do all of us have a humongous salary and great retirement. (They might up there in them Yankee schools....) Across the board the problems in public education exist to some degree in most places, with the difference being severity.
You’re right about school superintendents. They are unbelievably overpaid. The dirty little secret about principals and superintendents is that many of them were below average teachers. Most of them were friends with the right people and were known to be average teachers at best. Actually, being a good teacher is a hindrance to getting an administrative position because the higher-ups want them to stay in the classroom. The better teachers are also less likely to kiss the behinds of their superiors.