A consultation paper issued by Birmingham City Council says the authority needs to identify at least £340m of savings due to falling government funding and rising costs.
The paper warns that the authority is faced with difficult choices and says that it may look for savings in statutory services as well as discretionary services.
While the paper is light on detail, it says options include creating a trading arm to deliver support to schools and governors, and outsourcing services such as school meals and transport.
The council estimates that farming out school meals and the provision of transport and travel arrangements for children could cut costs by more than £20m.
It also proposes a new push to get schools in the city to work together on commissioning, sharing resources such as sports equipment, and pooling staff.
A council spokeswoman said the authority envisages that both maintained and academy schools would be involved in the partnership.
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