Why not? Their compensation is certainly comparable: leaving the super-stars out of the picture, after twenty years teaching in Oakland the pay is about 75,000. That would be about the same for many profs . As for quality of teaching, I 've met many moron profs and many exceptional high-school teachers and vice-versa. And there's no question that high-school teachers have a much tougher job than university professors.
So I'm not sure what I'm not supposed to be conflating.
Joanna