LANSING, Mich.—Rick Snyder’s standing as one of the GOP’s most accomplished governors has taken a beating in the crisis over lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Democrats, especially those running for president, have pointed to his administration’s mishandling of the city’s switch to a cheaper water supply as an example of Republican cost-cutting run amok.
But in a twist, the national scorn could pay one political dividend for him inside the state. The uproar should lessen resistance within his own party to the largest remaining item in Snyder’s plan for revitalizing Michigan’s economy: rescuing the worst-in-the-nation public schools in Detroit.
Snyder’s oft-stated goal since his election in 2010 has been reversing the state’s economic slide that worsened during the U.S. auto industry’s downturn. His successful effort to push financially devastated Detroit through bankruptcy was a key step in his plan.
But until the Flint disaster erupted, the GOP-controlled Legislature was balking at also pumping much more money into fixing the schools, despite the governor’s insistence that functioning Detroit schools are essential to giving Michigan a metropolitan economic hub again. Snyder’s bailout of the city cost $195 million in state money. The school rescue would cost $720 million more.
