esources with such other social priorities as health ransportation, defense, criminal justice, and private con umption. Economic analysis attempts to determine h o resources to different economic and social ac ivities to maximize social well-being. Using various economic criteria and analytic tools, it is possible to suggest he optimal size of the educational sector as well as uie means for financing it But, after resources a committed to education, questions can most productively be used remain about how they some allocations of resources within education are likely results terms of achievement and other educational outcomes than their alternatives. ferent types of education, such as vocational schooling, or different academic majors, have dif ferent on both the costs of education and educ results. And, different approaches to the provision of education and to determining where resources are used can also affect the productivity of resource use. Economically efficient use of resources within the educational sector re- quires that they to maximize educational out Even small losses in of dollars in an educational sector that is spending almost $300 billion a year, not to mention the waste of student time and the other human costs of all the disciplines that are represented in educa be the least ional research community, economics ma to educational researchers generally. Few educa tional researchers have been exposed to the tools of their own training, and economists prepare their research reports or articles for nontechnical The result is that economic research on educa tion is oten viewed as exotic, arcane, and outside of the mainstream of what is normally viewed as cducational research Of course, toeconomists, the economic analysis of educa tion is a central necessity for good educational decision making. Much educational research on efectiveness or efficiency in resource assumptions about use, but does not draw specifically upon economic analysis conomic pro analysis is missing. It is case of economics of education