Some folks in California want “teachers paid like rock starts and baseball players,” but the union officials who represent educators aren’t interested.

John Cox, the recently defeated Republican candidate for governor of California, was the latest to float the idea of basing teacher pay on how well their students perform, with those who inspire achievement taking home large contracts.

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It’s a market-based approach to teacher pay that’s popular with education reform advocates that’s always quickly shut down by union officials, and Cox’s recent push is no different, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“This is somebody who really doesn’t understand what education is about,” California Federation of Teachers President Joshua Pechthalt told the news site. “Education should not be a competitive endeavor.”

Cox, who has pushed merit pay for educators for more than a decade, sees things differently.

“Of course our teachers will never approach the pay of a Beyonce or a Lebron, but quite frankly, our classroom teachers influence, inspire and change the arc of more lives than even these music and athletic superstars,” Cox said in a statement.

“We need to attract the best and brightest, as well as value the ones we have – making absolutely certain their pensions are secure,” Cox said.

And while the state’s teachers unions want more money for their members, they’re only interested if the money comes with no strings attached. The CFT and California Teachers Association each donated $58,000 to elect Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom as the next governor, in part because he’s opposed to merit pay.

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“We think he’s going to be receptive to increasing funding in meaningful ways,” Pechthalt said.

The Libertarian news site Reason explains why the current pay system is a problem, and why unions aren’t interested in changing the situation.

“In the current public-school system … pay is based on seniority. A school teacher who has been just occupying a chair for decades, must be paid better than a young go-getter. A teacher who is willing to ply his or her skills in a tough, low-performing urban school must be paid the same as a teacher on autopilot in a wealthy suburban district, where the challenges are less severe and the stakes not as high. In times of layoffs, that tough and energetic teacher working a hard gig must be laid off before any teacher with greater seniority in the union, thanks to something known as LIFO, or ‘Last In, First Out,’” Reason reports.

“In the current, union-controlled monopoly system, school administrators are not free to recruit the best and brightest talent from other industries because, well, they can’t pay enough to lure them out of more lucrative fields. And anyone who wants to be a regular, full-time teacher in California’s public schools must go through the long, expensive and mind-numbing process of getting an education degree. (Did I mention that those who receive such degrees tend to come from the bottom rungs of the academic ladder, according to numerous studies?)

“To make matters worse, it’s nearly impossible to fire public-school teachers provided they show up for the job. School districts have ‘rubber rooms,’ where teachers deemed unfit for the classroom twiddle their thumbs and collect full pay and benefits while their cases are adjudicated for months and even years given all the union protections against firing. It can cost school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars to go through the firing process, so most don’t bother.”

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision had freed public school educators to choose whether they want to join a union or not, but teachers unions still continue to dominate education policy discussions in Sacramento and statehouses across the country.

Which means, for now, education reformers and school choice advocates like Cox and former state senator Gloria Romero are left to point out how teachers unions are holding back their top performers to cover for those who can’t cut it.

Teacher pay, Romero told the Bee, should be based on something “more than just showing up and breathing for however many certain number of years.”