08/27/2026
Lipstick on a Pig: When a Raise Doesn’t Fix an Inequitable System
It is time to stop applying percentage increases to an inequitable system and expecting an equitable result.
A flat percentage raise sounds good, but if we don’t address the employees at the bottom of the salary schedule, we’re just putting lipstick on a pig.
Let’s be clear: The issue is not that Caddo gave employees a 6% raise. Employees deserved a raise.
The issue is the district’s shortsighted decision to distribute millions of dollars through a uniform percentage increase without first taking a comprehensive look at its salary structure, staffing shortages, and operational needs.
A percentage raise applied to an inequitable system does not correct inequity, it magnifies it. Employees earning the highest salaries received the largest dollar increases, while bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and other lower-paid employees received comparatively little. At the same time, hundreds of experienced teachers who were already disadvantaged by Caddo’s salary schedule were left behind yet again.
And now the consequences of that decision are affecting students.
Students are reportedly sitting on school-bus floors because there are not enough drivers to cover routes. Schools do not have enough paraprofessionals to provide needed assistance, particularly for students with disabilities. These shortages were not unforeseeable. The warning signs were there when decisions were being made about how to allocate these millions of dollars.
Yet the district moved forward without first conducting the comprehensive salary and organizational study Red River United requested.
The district’s own financial records showed a General Fund balance of nearly $190 million entering the 2025–26 fiscal year. While not all of those dollars are unrestricted, Caddo had both the resources and the responsibility to study how its compensation dollars could be used most effectively.
Red River United recommended an independent K–12 review by an experienced organization such as Lean Frog, which has worked with school districts throughout Louisiana. Such a study could have examined the salary schedule, critical vacancies, hard-to-fill positions, central-office staffing, and whether district resources were being directed where they would have the greatest impact on students.
Instead, district leaders chose a politically attractive percentage and applied it across an already inequitable system.
There is no critical shortage of central-office administrators. The shortages are in the positions that transport our children, serve our students with disabilities, and keep our classrooms functioning.
Those at the top are paid to anticipate problems and make decisions that position the district for success. Leadership is not simply dividing money by the same percentage. Leadership is studying the district’s needs, setting priorities, and directing resources where they are most urgently needed.
The lowest-paid employees received the smallest dollar increases, while many of those same positions are where we continue to struggle with vacancies. We didn’t fix the underlying problem. We simply made the existing salary schedule look a little better.
The raise was not the mistake.
The mistake was spending millions of dollars without first determining whether the plan would actually solve Caddo’s most serious compensation and staffing problems.
Now our students and frontline employees are living with the consequences.
Caddo can and must do better.
Disclaimer: RRU has nothing against pigs. We do, however, have something against inequitable pay systems.
