Earlier this morning Governor Pawlenty and Senator Terri Bonoff (DFL), Senator Gen Olson (R), Senator David Hann (R), Representative Ryan Winkler (DFL), Representative Carol McFarlane (R) and Representative Pat Garofalo (R) announced a bipartisan proposal that would require school districts and charter schools to combine efforts to pool their purchasing power for information technology, food services, supplies and equipment, transportation and other goods and services.
At the news conference announcing the Initiative, Senator Bonoff stated that, “We can use this financial crisis as an opportunity to re-invent our approach to the business of running schools: targeting our resources towards increasing student achievement. Let’s take advantage of what 21st century knowledge and technology offers us in terms of best practices. Schools can pool their buying power, reducing expenses and ultimately providing more resources for the classroom.”
According to the press release about the proposal, the MN Department of Education will create and maintain a list of preferred vendors for various Shared Services. Once the list is compiled, MDE will create contracts with those preferred vendors on behalf of the state and work with school administrators, educators and school board members and other stakeholders to develop and implement a two year shared services plan to help schools best utilize those vendors for cost savings.
According to a conversation I had with one of the authors of the proposal, an information hearing on the proposal will be held tomorrow morning to shape the design of the final proposal, but the concept is to expand the kind of purchasing agreements that have existed through the regional cooperatives to a wide variety of goods and services so that more money is available for focusing on student achievement. In a conversation with another legislator who is an author of the bill, there are a number of issues and questions that still need to be addressed and answered as the proposal moves forward - so we will be following the issue closely.
Our lobbying team will be covering the hearing tomorrow morning and we will be engaged in the discussions on this proposal. We will let you know what happens at the hearing tomorrow morning in the Senate E-12 Finance Committee Meeting.
Eugene Piccolo