As Pat Anderson noted in her commentary in a recent weekly update , a top-down approach by the state to require that school districts share services has a number of problems.
While a mandate from Saint Paul may not be desirable, that doesn’t negate the fact that shared purchases of supplies and services can be a winner for taxpayers.
Four scholars with the Reason Foundation, a California-based think tank that focuses on making governments more efficient, explain why and how school districts can save money and improve their effectiveness by cooperating.
School districts might be able to share a large number of non-instructional services. Here’s a partial list: administrative computing and information technology systems; payroll and auditing; legal services; grant management; and staff training and development.
A district that shares services with other units of government (or even, in some cases, a private company) can get many benefits. Instead of having one person on staff who tries to wear three hats, a district can draw on an outside organization that has a full-time specialist.
