Critics Of DPS Plan Beginning To Soften

Some of the staunchest critics of the governor’s plan to get Detroit Public Schools get out of debt are softening their stance some after the he announced Wednesday a plan to pull money from a different source to cover the $715 million initiative.

State Representative Peter Pettalia, R-Presque Isle, is one of them. He says he would have been hard pressed to vote to pull money from his school districts to help pay down the debts of DPS or any other district in the state.

However he still wants to see some academic improvements baked in to the initiative.

Initially money for the plan was going to come from the School Aid Fund, which would have dinged every district in the state. Instead, the governor is now eying the tobacco settlement fund as the source to fund the plan.