As difficult as the economy is at a personal level, school systems across the country are also struggling to find solutions to applying limited funds to seemingly unlimited challenges. Professional learning, as National Staff Development Council (NSDC) President Charles Mason says in his column, is often among the first things to be cut from a budget. How can school leaders respond to that instinct? Two columnists, NSDC Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh and Lea Arnau, tackle that question from different perspectives. Like Mason, they see the opening such economic circumstances provide. In her article, Stephanie Hirsh discusses several ideas for maximizing the remaining resources and building support for increasing the investment when new funds become available. In her article, Lea Arnau discusses how reviewing the talents of the people institutions have within them and thinking beyond traditional boundaries with regard to time and energy will continue to move them toward their goals, even when dollars are in short supply.