Purchasing and supply management is rarely a top priority for school districts in the United States, but our research suggests that it should be. As a result of state budget crises, school districts are facing declining budgets for the first time in more than a decade.¹ They are already struggling to meet stringent local and national guidelines for student achievement and to maintain their crumbling infrastructure. Better management of purchasing could help them make ends meet without compromising educational quality.

In our experience with school districts around the country—most recently with the Chicago Public Schools and the Puerto Rico² Department of Education—we found that bringing better discipline to purchasing and supply management can save school systems from 10 to 35 percent in many categories of nonpersonnel spending, including textbooks, transportation, food, and janitorial services. Annual savings in large urban school districts have ranged from $30 million to $40 million.

To achieve those sorts of figures, school districts need to examine their spending practices and to refocus on the original mandate of their central purchasing functions: saving money. Many of these departments have grown more concerned with filling out forms than with outcomes, and the result is that...