The author, who has served as a school board member and district superintendent, advocates that school districts use an academic return on investment approach to evaluate and make decisions about spending, specifically in special education. This approach requires that schools formally evaluate all programs, efforts, and strategies by multiple measures, including effects on student learning, number of students served, and cost per student. Using examples from 50 school districts he has studied, the author describes how this approach can be applied to decisions about special education to increase cost-effectiveness while actually increasing student learning. (Contains 1 endnote.)