This policy brief offers informed advice to school districts seeking to provide a well-rounded, quality education to all children in a time of strained budgets. The author recommends three strategies: (1) Prioritize both achievement and cost-efficiency: Allocating scarce resources effectively means funding what works and obtaining ample information before making funding decisions, including information about what drives achievement--and drives it cost-effectively; (2) Make staffing decisions based on student needs, not adult preferences: Districts should establish guidelines for what constitutes a full and fair workload for staff members, then staff accordingly. This may include "trading down" to less-expensive services of equivalent quality, considering alternatives to maintaining class sizes, and closely monitoring insurance eligibility; and (3) Manage special education spending for better outcomes and greater cost-effectiveness: How money is spent matters more than how much is spent; that's true for special education, too. Districts can reduce their special-education costs by ensuring that all children read at grade level; hiring a few behaviorists in lieu of many paraprofessionals; and staffing according to service hours, rather than numbers of students served.