University Prep Schools in Detroit wants to pay some math teachers a base salary of $100,000, and it can do so only because it is not beholden to a union contract.

University Prep posted a job listing that calls for “a proven track record of strong student achievement data,” five or more years of teaching experience and a secondary teaching certificate. The public charter school, which says it is looking for “model teachers of secondary mathematics,” also offers a signing bonus of $5,000, with $10,000 in relocation aid available for those who move from a distance.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District — the conventional public school district in the city — cannot make a similar offer to attract excellent teachers. Its collective bargaining agreement with the Detroit Federation of Teachers — the teachers union — forbids it.

The union contract tops out at $94,000 for a teacher with a doctoral degree, well below the starting pay at University Prep, which requires only a bachelor’s degree. A high school mathematics teacher with compelling evidence of excellence in teaching, then, has a far greater financial incentive to sign a contract with University Prep Schools than the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

A teacher under the district’s union contract gets paid more for staying on the job longer and accumulating academic credentials, so even an ineffective teacher will, given enough time, rise to the top of the pay scale. No doubt the union recognizes that few teachers are exceptional (that is part of the nature of being exceptional, after all). So it gives priority to the average teachers who make up the vast majority of its membership.

Students need excellent teachers, not average ones, more than ever. But the Detroit Public Schools Community District, constrained by its union contract, cannot offer exceptional pay to exceptional teachers, who are hard to find. University Prep Schools, however, has the freedom to adapt its compensation strategy to the demands of the labor market, offering the best teachers what they are worth.

The starting pay listed in the University Prep Schools advertisement well exceeds the maximum available under the union contract that the Detroit Public Schools Community District is bound to. Schools that can flexibly respond to student needs will be able to attract the best talent. University Prep can be flexible. The Detroit Public Schools Community District cannot.

Parents who want the best education for their children will take notice when those teachers make a difference in the classroom.

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