A Foundation, Not a Lifeline: Where Troy Schools Go From Here

Announcement on expansion of lighting in Detroit wouldn't have been possible without a vision and belief that our best days are ahead

Right now, most conversations about our schools sounds the same: cut, cut, cut.

And to be fair, there’s a reason for that. You cannot build a public budget on money you do not have. Until a millage actually passes, a responsible district has to plan as if it won’t — because assuming revenue that isn’t guaranteed is exactly how public institutions get into real trouble. That’s not pessimism. That’s basic fiscal discipline, and I respect it.

But discipline on a spreadsheet is not the same thing as a vision for our children. And somewhere along the way, the entire discussion about the future of Troy Schools turned into a discussion about damage control.

Pass the millage so we don’t have to cut. Pass it so we can restore what we lost. Pass it so we can keep doing what we’ve always done.

I’ll be honest with you: that argument doesn’t move me, and I don’t think it should move you either. “Give us the money so we can stay exactly the same” is not a vision. It’s a holding pattern. It’s managing decline — and we did not move to Troy, and I am not running for this board, to help anyone manage decline.

Let me tell you where I come from on this.

I spent fifteen years as a city executive in Detroit. I helped lead a public institution through the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history — through a financial hole most people assumed you simply do not climb out of — and we climbed out anyway. I grew up in a family of teachers and principals. I’ve worked in the legislature, and I work in public life now. So when I look at a millage, I don’t see an existential cliff. I see a tool.

I know how to weather a structural deficit. I also know how to build something that lasts. A school board needs people who can do both.

This system has been the same since Proposal A in 1994. Budgets tighten and they loosen. Hard years come and hard years pass. Structural problems get worked through — and sometimes they don’t — but either way, you do not let the obstacle become the destination. You keep your eyes on the light you’re walking toward, no matter how many roadblocks sit in the road.

So here is my honest position. Yes, I want this millage to pass. But not for the reason you keep hearing.

I don’t want it to pass so we can default back to where we were a few years ago. I want it to pass because it is the foundation we build the next decade on.

Because here’s what’s actually coming. Over the next six or seven years, education is going to change more than it has in a generation — and it’s going to change whether or not Lansing ever fixes the way it funds our schools. Artificial intelligence. Individualized learning. Tools we can’t even fully picture yet. We can meet that future with a mindset from ten years ago, or we can lead it. Troy can be a district that plays defense, or a district that sets the standard for the entire state.

I know which one I’m running for.

That means smaller classes, so every child is actually seen. It means adaptive, individualized learning that meets each student exactly where they are, instead of treating them all the same. It means teachers who are empowered, trusted, and paid like the professionals they are. And it means sitting down across the table from our educators — not as adversaries, but in good faith — and saying out loud: there are real structural problems here, and I will work with you to solve them. You trust us, we trust you, and we grow together. We cannot build the next decade of Troy Schools without the people who actually teach in them.

That’s the conversation we should be having right now — before the vote, not after it.

And let me say the thing nobody else seems willing to say: Troy is already one of the very best districts in Michigan. I’m not sure people here always realize how good we have it. We are not fighting to avoid becoming average. We are fighting to stay the leaders we already are — and to set the bar for everyone else.

The real threat to this district was never a single ballot question. The real threat is a mindset: the quiet belief that our best days are behind us, and that our only job now is to lose a little more slowly. I reject that completely. I want to not only restore advanced math, but I want this debate to act as a catalyst to expand advanced learning AS WELL AS spur additional conversations about how we can innovate curriculum for students that learn differently, so they have the same expanded opportunity.

 There are forces beyond our control, at the state level and beyond. But the things that are in our control are more than enough to put Troy at the top and keep us there.

So whatever happens at the ballot box, here is my commitment to you.

I will never be the candidate telling you the sky is falling. We will get through what we have to get through — and then we will build. Not a return to the way things were. A foundation for what comes next.

Every child. Every school. Every opportunity.

— Beau