Lt. Governor John Cherry this afternoon proposed using Michigan’s water supply to fund its education system.
More specifically, businesses that make a profit by selling Michigan’s water should pay a fee of 10 cents per bottle. That money, in turn, could replace the recently-dismantled Promise Scholarship, Cherry said.
He said the state’s two most precious natural resources — its people and its water — are being depleted.
“We are losing one resource — our talented work force and the energy of our young people, and we are giving away another resource — our water — for free,” he said. “You don’t need a PhD in mathematics to know this is a terrible equation.”
“It’s time for the bottlers to pay their water bill, just like you and I do,” he said.
Cherry was speaking at the University of Michigan on a panel discussing the 2004 report that made 19 recommendations on education reform in Michigan.