The 13 Chapters in this book address the important issue of how schools and school districts allocate their resources. The book summarizes the emerging research in educational resource allocations (tax dollars) at the district, school, and classroom levels. Following the preface by Lawrence O. Picus, the chapters include: (1) "Why Do We Need to Know What Money Buys? Research on Resource Allocation Patterns in Elementary and Secondary Schools" (Lawrence O. Picus and Minaz B. Fazal); (2) "The Quest for Equalized Mediocrity: School Finance Reform without Consideration of School Performance" (Eric A. Hanushek; (3) "Money Does Matter: A Research Synthesis of a New Universe of Education Production Function Studies" (Richard D. Laine, Rob Greenwald, and Larry V. Hedges); (4) "Does Equal Funding for Districts Mean Equal Funding for Classroom Students? Evidence from California" (Linda Hertert); (5) "Beyond District-Level Expenditures: Schooling Resource Allocation and Use in Florida" (Yasser A. Nakib); (6) "Bringing Money to the Classroom: A Systemic Resource Allocations Model Applied to the New York City Public Schools" (Sheree T. Speakman, Bruce S. Cooper, Robert Sampieri, et al); (7) "Allocating Resources to Influence Teacher Retention" (Neil O. Theobald and R. Mark Gritz); (8) "Stretching the Tax Dollar: Increasing Efficiency in Urban and Rural Schools" (David M. Anderson); (9) "The Allocation of Educational Resources and School Finance Equity in Ohio" (Thomas B. Timar); (10) "Resource Allocation Patterns within School Finance Litigation Strategies" (R. Craig Wood and Jeffrey Maiden); (11) "Redefining School-Based Budgeting for High-Involvement" (Priscilla Wohlstetter and Amy Van Kirk); (12) "The Politics of School-Level Finance Data and State Policy Making" (Carolyn D. Herrington); and (13) "Implications for Policy: What Might Happen in American Education if It Were Known How Money Actually Is Spent?" (James W. Guthrie). An index, 47 tables, and 5 figures are included. References accompany each chapter. The appendix lists the Board of Directors of the American Education Finance Association, 1995-96. (LMI)