OAKLAND CO. -- Mike Bouchard, Republican candidate for governor, says Michigan's school districts need to get creative in how they fund their support services.  He is proposing a way he says will reduce costs without sacrificing excellence.  Consolidation and competitively bidding support services are ideas whose time has come.

Bouchard says that some districts are already working in this fashion.  The Troy School District, for example, is saving four-million-dollars a year by working with the private sector.  He says that works out to about 300-dollars per student.  Bouchard says it's time that more schools partner with the private sector as well as other districts, to deliver support services.