With respect to teachers’ salaries, the major problem is not that they are too low on the average–they may well be too high on the average–but that they are too uniform and rigid. Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid. Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority, degrees received, and teaching certificates acquired than by merit. This, too, is largely a result of the present system of governmental administration of schools and becomes more serious as the unit over which governmental control is exercised becomes larger.
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
Yep, if you want to take all the dynamism out of education, make teachers merely government workers; then, have them unionize like factory workers. Compulsory education is a good thing, as education has a huge public goods component for which the state has a role to play, but public education should resemble public works as little as possible. Great quote, Abe. Only cool people read Milton Friedman.