Non-Instructional Services in Schools Replacing non-instructional personnel in schools with professional service providers is a controversial topic for several reasons. Parents and other stakeholders are naturally more reluctant to trust the welfare of their children to for-profit professional service providers than local school employees. Whereas schools have direct control over their employees, outsourced workers are more loyal to their employers than to schools. There are concerns about the quality of services and how their quality might be adversely affected by cost-cutting measures. On the other hand, outsourcing non-essential functions could potentially represent significant cost savings for educational institutions. On balance, outsourcing non-instructional functions is a viable approach to cost reduction provided that institutions follow best practices in connection with selection of service providers and accurate calculation of measurable projected outcomes. However, in addition to the actual implementation of an effective service selection process, there are also internal political considerations.

Overview of Issues

The cost of education in America has been continually increasing for decades, particularly at the college level, so much so that hundreds of colleges have cut departments and services and reduced options available to students as cost-cutting measures (Bushman & Dean, 2005). Outsourcing non-instructional or non-mission-critical functions can often reduce...

However, where it is not properly researched and implemented, it can actually cost more than retaining institutional employees in those positions (Maciejewski, 2007). Whether the changeover to professional services increases or decreases the quality of services is an important concern, as is the identification of processes to ensure the former and prevent the latter from occurring.
Outsourcing May Reduce the Cost of Maintaining Education Programs

Generally, professional service providers can furnish the same types of food vendor and janitorial services (etc.) for lower costs than the comparable cost of directly employing the staff necessary to furnish the same services, mainly by virtue of economy of scale and the efficiency of processes associated with large operations dedicated to specific kinds of services (Bushman & Dean, 2005; Weaver Smith & Smith, 2012). Large operations can maintain the same services at such lower overhead costs that they can typically offer highly competitive prices even after accounting for a healthy profit (Bushman & Dean, 2005; Weaver Smith & Smith, 2012).

The Quality of Services May Decrease

Possibly the most common concern among decision-makers in connection with the outsourcing of non-instructional services is that it may be difficult to ensure the same quality of services without direct control of those operations (Maciejewski, 2007). Quite obviously, that lack of control…