Because current fiscal constraints call for inexpensive approaches to achieving equity, school finance research should, in addition to engaging in traditional analysis, address the relationship of curriculum and instruction to equity and economic efficiency. Problems of equity are posed by curriculum decisions and classroom management techniques that partly determine student performance. Cost-effectiveness, delivery systems, and time and cost productivity studies can offer data to help schools allocate resources more efficiently and equitably. Suggestions for research include conceptualizing school time as a zero-sum game in which student and teacher time are scarce resources subject to cost-effectiveness analysis, and studying content differences within schools and classrooms and among districts. The policy links between state departments of education and school districts and between districts and schools and classrooms could also profitably be explored. Classroom and finance researchers could collaborate in exploring policy options for increasing student performance given limited resources, including techniques for better time management. Promising low-cost school improvement methods used or proposed in California are listed. Data generated by school finance research can contribute to creating a climate favorable to adoption and maintenance of reforms altering time, content, materials, and teacher variables. (MJL)