State wants all schools to combine buying power

The Anoka-Hennepin school district gets great deals on computers, spaghetti sauce, chicken patties and cookies.

Northeast Metro 916 Intermediate School District got bargain-basement prices on maintenance supplies.

Throughout Minnesota, school districts have been banding together in purchasing pools to lower the cost of goods and services.

Now, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislators in the House and Senate want to make such practices mandatory.

All schools would participate

Their proposal, called "Minnesota K-12 Shared Service," would require districts to combine their buying power to purchase things such as food, supplies and equipment, and school buses. All Minnesota public schools and charter schools would have to participate.

Schools would have to do their buying from a list of companies approved and compiled by the Minnesota Department of Education. The idea is that creating large buying pools of districts drives prices down. Supporters of the measure say schools in other states have cut their buying costs 5 to 15 percent by using such arrangements.

"There are 340 school districts in the state of Minnesota," Pawlenty said. "There are 150 charter schools in the state. So, we have 490 entities in the state doing more or less the same things, but doing them separately." Textbooks and other school curriculum-related materials are not covered by the proposal.

We're already doing it, schools say

Though efforts in other states were cited in the news conference, many school districts in Minnesota are already involved in cooperative buying pools with other districts.

Anoka-Hennepin schools, for instance, banded together a couple of years ago with 14 other school districts to form a food-buying cooperative. It has expanded to include at least 85 other districts. As a result of the lowered prices their purchasing power got them, district officials say they were able to save $250,000 on a $7 million food budget last year. That savings gets passed on to parents and students in the form of lower meal prices. The district is also part of a technology-buying consortium that has allowed it to buy new iMac computers for $719 apiece, 24 percent less than the normal price for schools.

"I would say we're already doing what the state is interested in," district spokeswoman Mary Olson said.

"I think that this is a great question the legislature should be looking at," said Connie Hayes, superintendent of Northeast Metro 916 Intermediate School District, which provides services in such areas as special education, gifted and talented, and career and technical training to 10 member school districts. "But let's learn what is already happening out there, and learn from what's already going on."

Northeast Metro 916 is part of a buying pool of 43 Minnesota districts that can participate in 16 joint purchasing agreements for physical education and classroom supplies and other goods. A pool of seven districts saved 25 to 35 percent on maintenance supplies, said Kristine Carr, Northeast Metro 916 director of administrative services.

Chief authors of the measure are Sen. Terri Bonhoff, DFL-Minnetonka, and Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley.

Pawlenty said he hoped to be able to sign the measure into law early in the session so school districts are able to participate next school year.