This chapter of "Principles of School Business Management" analyzes three aspects of economic change that could have a profound impact on educational finance in the future. The chapter begins with an introductory review of recent economic history and its reflection in social agendas for education. The causes of the current lack of discretionary resources for school districts are traced and the consequent difficulties limiting educational reform are noted. The chapter then turns to the first of its three central topics: tax base investment cycles that take capital from a tax base, pass it through a system like the education system, and return it to the tax base in the form of human capital. The dangers of depending on regional tax bases within a global economy are examined. The second major topic is concerned with differences in the response times of political and economic allocative systems; these differences can generate potentially disastrous slippage. The chapter's third topic is delivery systems, and particularly the ability of organizational and technological changes to be assimilated by public education's bureaucracy. The implications of these challenges for educational policy are considered in the chapter's conclusion. Thirty-four references are cited. (PGD)