SaveNASchools has offered the district several suggestions with respect to closing the budget gap. One of them is outsourcing transportation. This option would result in two types of savings (1) a one-time windfall from the sale of the bus fleet and, (2) annual savings from cost efficiencies. Other districts have seen significant benefits from these arrangements.
“Penn Hills’ director of business affairs Richard Liberto said the move would save the district $3.3 million the first year and from $1.4 million to $1.7 million yearly thereafter for the remainder of the five-year contract. The first-year savings figure includes the sale of the district’s bus fleet to First Student.”
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We’ve also attached a report that explains how outsourcing works and addresses the most common concerns. Here is an excerpt from the report:
“Our research has found consistent evidence that outsourcing contracts between public school districts and for-profit service providers can be mutually beneficial, producing cost savings (and sometimes new revenues), profits for the contractor, improved services for the school district, and more resources directed into the learning environment.
Education spending in the US is now nearing $600 billion per year, of which at least 34.5%–that’s more than $200 billion—is for non-instructional services. Through outsourcing, school districts seek to reduce the costs in time, personnel, and dollars for services that are necessary but not core to the educational mission, thereby moving greater resources into the classroom. At the same time, they seek improved quality in these services, which according to the best studies, they receive.”
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