This book asserts that time and money are systematically misspent in U.S. schools, suggesting that this is a result of a variety of factors. From class schedules that fragment students' time, to budgets that invest money in dozens of activities that are essentially distractions from learning, schools try to do too much and end up delivering too little of what really matters. Starting with a portrait of a typical high school student's day, the book highlights the fragmented shape of a typical school day and opens up the complex set of issues of scheduling and budgeting that lie behind it. The book argues for radical rethinking of the flow of time in a school day and for "zero-based" budgeting (which wipes the slate clean and starts with basic priorities first). It recommends scaling back the huge investment schools make in sports, explaining that people are rarely made aware of the real costs that sports represent and of the small percentage of students they really serve. It recommends using national and state standard as the learning-centered measures of new priorities. (SM)