The authors concentrate on financial resources available to schools, how to improve fiscal equity, and how schools can use resources in smarter ways. They explain why political progressives should assist in--and even lead--efforts to bring the idea of managing performance with measurable outcomes to public schools. The first section dwells on issues of fairness in financial resources available to schools. This theme, of course, is familiar terrain for the political left, and progressives have a special role to play in shoehorning productivity into debates and policy formation around improving fiscal equity in the nation's public schools. The second section takes on the idea of using resources in smarter ways. This idea, difficult for everyone, is especially challenging to those more comfortable tinkering with inputs than managing performance based on measurable outcomes. But mounting evidence of desperate misalignment between traditional uses of resources and outcome-oriented goals undermines public support for existing levels of investment, dashing hopes for strategically defensible increases.