Simultaneous pressures to reduce costs and increase student achievement have never been greater than they are today. Not only is cost-cutting essential in this era of tightened resources, argue Hess and Osberg, but eliminating inefficient spending is critical for freeing up resources to drive school reform. This provocative book brings together a dynamic group of authors—scholars, consultants, journalists, and entrepreneurs—who offer fresh insights into an issue no school or district can afford to ignore.

“Stretching the School Dollar is the right book at the right time. It offers research-based thinking and real options to school leaders facing tough budgetary choices in today’s economy. The book’s detailed examples—how to analyze financial data, make the best use of teachers’ skills, and harness the new technologies, for example—provide a road map to economic reform that enhances, rather than obstructs, student learning.”
—Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, American Association of School Administrators

“Stretching the School Dollar arrives at a time when it is urgently needed. It is ideal for school district and state leaders who are interested in—even desperate to know—how our school systems can do more with less. It offers practical recommendations for cutting costs in ways that avoid damage to school programming as well as more dramatic and innovative ways to re-engineer how we ‘do school.’ If you are ready to meet your fiscal commitments while providing a world-class education to your students, this is the book for you.”
—Deborah A. Gist, Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education

“Bringing together thought and ‘action’ leaders, Hess and Osberg’s new book provides ideas tested in the crucible of the public square. Coming at a time when taxpayers are asking superintendents to produce quantum leaps in student performance while dramatically reducing the resources to accomplish such feats, this book will be required reading.”
—Dr. Jose M. Torres, Superintendent of Schools, School District U-46, Elgin, Illinois

An educator, political scientist, and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues.

In addition to his Education Week blog "Rick Hess Straight Up," he is the author of influential books on education including The Same Thing Over and Over, Education Unbound, Common Sense School Reform, Revolution at the Margins, and Spinning Wheels, as well as the co-editor of the new volume Stretching the School Dollar. 

His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, and National Review.

He has edited widely-cited volumes on education philanthropy, urban school reform, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind. 

He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the Review Board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 Schools, and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence.

A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.