MAKE EUNICE GREAT AGAIN? FIX THE SCHOOLS

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE EUNICE GREAT AGAIN, FIX THE SCHOOLS

Let’s be honest about Eunice.

We can complain about the Mayor.

We can complain about the City Council.

We can replace one politician with another, shuffle chairs around City Hall, commission another study, hold another meeting, and spend another ten years wondering why Eunice can’t attract the kind of industry, investment, and great-paying jobs that we desperately need.

But we’re dancing around the elephant in the room.

Eunice’s biggest problem isn’t sitting in City Hall.

It’s sitting in the St. Landry Parish school system.

And the numbers are downright embarrassing.

According to Louisiana’s 2025 school-performance results, St. Landry Parish scored 72.1 (a Grade “C”) and finished DEAD LAST among the nine Acadiana parish school systems in the regional comparison.

Not next to last.

Not “somewhere around average.”

DEAD LAST.

Vermilion: 91.3
Lafayette: 87.5
Jeff Davis: 86.0
St. Mary: 84.6
Iberia: 81.0
Acadia: 78.0
Evangeline: 77.8
St. Martin: 74.6

And then, bringing up the rear:

ST. LANDRY: 72.1

The statewide district score was 80.9.

St. Landry?

72.1.

Evangeline Parish?

They may not be sitting at the top of Louisiana’s educational mountain, but at 77.8, they’ve at least earned themselves one wonderfully comforting bragging right:

“HEY… AT LEAST WE’RE NOT ST. LANDRY PARISH!”

St. Landry: 72.1. Dead last in Acadiana.

When your neighboring parish can use your school system as the reassuring comparison that makes theirs look better, perhaps it’s time to admit you have a problem.

“How are our schools doing?”

“Well… could be worse.”

“How much worse?”

“We could live in St. Landry.”

Ouch.

That’s not a school-performance score.

That’s a punchline with a superintendent.

We’re not talking about losing to some fabulously wealthy suburban district outside New Orleans.

We’re talking about being outperformed by every other Acadiana parish system in that comparison—including neighboring rural parishes dealing with many of the same economic and demographic challenges we face.

And statewide, St. Landry remains in the bottom half of Louisiana school systems.

That’s not somebody’s political opinion.

That’s a scoreboard.

And scoreboards have consequences.

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WE’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE

Some of us have long memories.

We remember the scandals.

We remember controversies involving school officials and questionable academic credentials.

We remember a former School Board member eventually getting caught in a federal corruption case involving an attempt to sell his vote in connection with the selection of a superintendent.

And yet, year after year, the answer from the institution always seems remarkably familiar:

More money.

Need improvement?

More money.

Need teacher raises?

More money.

Need facilities?

More money.

Need administrators?

More money.

Need to solve the problems the last pile of money supposedly was going to solve?

Well…

APPARENTLY WE NEED ANOTHER PILE OF MONEY.

Every couple of years, taxpayers get another sales pitch explaining why this tax is absolutely essential.

A recent proposal was sold partly on the need for better employee compensation.

The voters said:

NO.

And what happened?

Raises were given anyway.

Additional personnel were hired.

Somehow, money that we were warned wasn’t there suddenly developed the miraculous ability to reproduce.

Then came another trip back to the taxpayers.

More money, please.

And voters said:

NO.

Again.

Perhaps the people of St. Landry Parish aren’t as stupid as some people apparently believe.

Perhaps taxpayers have finally figured out that continually pouring money into a dysfunctional system doesn’t necessarily fix the dysfunction.

Sometimes it just gives the dysfunction a larger checking account.

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AND REMEMBER EVANGELINE DOWNS?

Oh, I remember this one.

Remember Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino?

Remember when gambling revenue was going to be another great financial blessing for St. Landry Parish?

The racetrack moved from Lafayette Parish to Opelousas.

The casino came with it.

The slot machines started spinning.

The money started flowing.

And some of that gambling revenue was dedicated to education.

This was going to help save our schools.

Uh-huh.

Well…

Evangeline Downs is still there.

The horses are still running.

The slot machines are still ringing.

The casino is still taking bets.

And the gambling money is still flowing.

After all those years of this wonderful new revenue stream, where are the St. Landry Parish schools?

72.1 – C –

Dead last in Acadiana.

Bottom half of Louisiana.

Funny how every new source of revenue arrives carrying a promise of salvation, yet somehow the salvation never seems to arrive.

At some point, maybe we should entertain the radical possibility that the problem isn’t that the St. Landry Parish school system hasn’t been given enough ways to get money.

Maybe the problem is what happens after it gets the money.

We’ve heard this song for decades.

“Give us more resources and we’ll improve the schools.”

Casino revenue.

Taxes.

State money.

Federal money.

Grants.

Another tax proposal.

Another dedicated revenue stream.

Another promise.

Another election.

Another plea that THIS TIME the additional money will finally make the difference.

Meanwhile, the casino keeps collecting.

The school system keeps collecting.

And the report card keeps arriving:

72.1.

Perhaps it’s finally time to quit asking:

“How much more money does the school system need?”

And start asking:

“WHY HAVEN’T THE MONEY AND PROMISES WE’VE ALREADY GIVEN THEM PRODUCED BETTER SCHOOLS?”

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NOW COMMUNITIES PAY THE PRICE

And when the money supposedly isn’t there?

Do we finally attack the bureaucracy?

Do we radically rethink how the district operates?

Do we demand measurable academic results before demanding another dollar?

No.

We start talking about closing and consolidating community schools—including schools in communities where parents and residents are deeply invested in keeping them alive.

That is backwards.

You don’t punish communities that are trying to make their schools work because the larger system cannot get its house in order.

You fix the system.

And Eunice has already seen what can happen when it quits sending its resources elsewhere and takes responsibility for a local institution itself.

Remember the old Eunice–Opelousas library arrangement?

I certainly do.

Eunice, under our current Mayor, separated from that arrangement and created its own system.

Today, instead of watching Eunice’s resources disappear into a larger operation, roughly $150,000 a year more stays in Eunice’s own coffers. $150,000 more for the Library… for the City… for our Children. Each year.

Funny how local control suddenly starts looking pretty attractive when the money stays home.

Which raises a rather obvious question:

WHY ARE WE NOT HAVING THAT SAME CONVERSATION ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS?

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WANT INDUSTRY? START WITH SCHOOLS.

Everybody says Eunice needs economic development.

They’re right.

We need industry.

We need businesses.

We need professional jobs.

We need manufacturing.

We need employers paying wages that allow young families to stay here instead of graduating, packing their belongings, and heading for Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Houston or Dallas.

And Governor Jeff Landry’s administration has demonstrated that Louisiana CAN attract enormous industrial investment.

Companies ARE coming to Louisiana.

Investment IS coming to Louisiana.

Great-paying jobs ARE coming to Louisiana.

So here’s the uncomfortable question for St. Landry Parish:

WHY AREN’T ENOUGH OF THEM COMING HERE?

Take a little drive south into Vermilion Parish and the contrast becomes almost absurd.

Vermilion Parish school performance:

91.3 — A

St. Landry Parish:

72.1 — C

And now look where one of the most extraordinary economic-development projects announced for Louisiana is going.

Vermilion Parish.

Governor Landry’s administration announced that SpaceX plans a staggering $100 BILLION investment in a massive Pecan Island campus.

The project is projected to create approximately 3,000 direct jobs over ten years.

And these aren’t $12-an-hour jobs stocking shelves.

The projected average salary is approximately:

$92,600 A YEAR.

Louisiana Economic Development estimates another 8,100-plus indirect jobs associated with the project.

Think about that.

Vermilion Parish: 91.3.

St. Landry Parish: 72.1.

One is celebrating an enormous industrial investment and thousands of high-paying jobs.

The other is debating school closures and wondering why communities such as Eunice struggle to attract major employers.

Now, let’s be fair.

Nobody should pretend SpaceX picked Vermilion Parish solely because its schools scored 91.3.

A project of that magnitude depends upon geography, available land, infrastructure, transportation, energy, environmental considerations, incentives and a hundred other factors.

But anyone who believes schools have nothing to do with economic development is kidding himself.

Companies don’t just relocate machinery.

THEY RELOCATE PEOPLE.

Engineers.

Managers.

Scientists.

Technicians.

Executives.

Skilled tradesmen.

And those people have husbands and wives.

They have families.

Most importantly:

THEY HAVE CHILDREN.

When you’re asking an engineer making $100,000 a year to move his family into your community, what do you suppose he and his wife are going to do?

They’re going to look at houses.

They’re going to look at crime.

They’re going to look at hospitals.

They’re going to look at quality of life.

And you can bet they’re going to look at:

THE SCHOOLS.

And there it is.

91.3.

Or…

72.1.

Those aren’t just numbers on some bureaucrat’s spreadsheet.

THOSE NUMBERS MEAN THINGS

They mean whether families want to live here.

They mean whether professionals want to relocate here.

They mean whether companies believe they can recruit and retain the employees they need.

They mean investment.

They mean opportunity.

THEY MEAN JOBS

GOOD JOBS

Jobs that buy houses.

Jobs that support restaurants.

Jobs that fill stores.

Jobs that create other jobs.

Jobs that keep our children from having to leave home to build a career.

Jobs that turn declining communities into growing communities.

That’s why I don’t shrug my shoulders when somebody tells me St. Landry Parish has a 72.1.

Because 72.1 has consequences.

And somewhere down the road, somebody else is celebrating the ribbon cutting.

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IT AIN’T THE MAYOR

That’s the point.

It ain’t the Mayor.

IT AIN’T THE CITY COUNCIL

They have their responsibilities, and when they screw up, hold them accountable.

But City Hall cannot magically transform a parish school system it doesn’t control.

And until we’re willing to confront that fact, we’re going to continue electing new local politicians and expecting them to solve a problem whose headquarters isn’t even at Eunice City Hall.

You can build the prettiest industrial park in Louisiana.

You can waive taxes.

You can pave roads.

You can install fiber.

You can have the greatest mayor in Louisiana and a City Council personally standing at the city limits holding:

WELCOME, INDUSTRY!

signs.

But eventually somebody from that company is still going to Google:

“St. Landry Parish schools.”

And City Hall can’t make that 72.1 disappear.

The future of Eunice is tied to the future of its children.

And the future of those children is too important to remain hostage to a parishwide system where mediocrity has apparently become an acceptable outcome.

A 72.1 should not be acceptable.

Dead last in Acadiana should not be acceptable.

Bottom half of Louisiana should not be acceptable.

Not for our children.

Not for our taxpayers.

Not for our businesses.

And certainly not for the future of Eunice.

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MAYBE IT’S TIME FOR EUNICE TO LEAVE

We’ve tried the parish system.

We’ve funded the parish system.

We’ve watched the parish system.

We’ve listened to the promises.

We’ve watched taxes proposed, rejected, repackaged and proposed again.

We’ve watched new revenue streams arrive with promises attached.

We’ve watched casino money flow.

And after all of it, here we sit:

72.1 – C

Dead last in Acadiana.

Bottom half of Louisiana.

Meanwhile, just down the road:

91.3 – A

$100 billion in announced investment.

3,000 direct jobs averaging approximately $92,600.

No, a school score didn’t single-handedly bring SpaceX to Vermilion Parish.

But those numbers really do mean something.

Families.

Investment.

Opportunity.

JOBS

Good jobs.

At some point, continuing to do the same thing stops being patience and starts becoming stupidity.

Maybe Eunice needs to begin seriously examining the creation of an independent school district—one governed locally, accountable locally, funded locally, and focused first and foremost on the children and communities of the Eunice area.

Would it be simple?

No.

Would there be legal, financial, logistical and political hurdles?

Absolutely.

But those are reasons to study it—not excuses to refuse to discuss it.

Because if local control worked for another important Eunice institution, perhaps it’s worth asking whether our MOST IMPORTANT institution deserves the same consideration.

And if the answer from the parish establishment is that Eunice couldn’t possibly succeed on its own, then I have a question for them:

COMPARED TO WHAT?

Because the system we’re in now has already shown us what its version of success looks like.

It’s called:

72.1

So if we’re serious about bringing jobs back…

If we’re serious about attracting industry…

If we’re serious about keeping young families here…

If we’re serious about giving our children schools worthy of them…

And if we’re really serious about:

MAKING EUNICE GREAT AGAIN…

Then maybe it’s finally time to quit pretending the biggest obstacle is sitting behind a desk at City Hall.

It ain’t the Mayor.

It ain’t the City Council.

The problem is bigger than that.

IT’S TIME TO TALK SERIOUSLY ABOUT AN INDEPENDENT EUNICE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Because Eunice’s children deserve better than dead last.

AND SO DOES EUNICE