America’s education system needs a Bill James, and a Billy Beane. Together, James and Beane—the focus of Michael Lewis’s recent bestseller “Moneyball”—revolutionized Major League Baseball by demonstrating how maximizing efficiency can leverage limited resources to create a successful outcome.

Bill James, author of the comprehensive “Historical Baseball Abstract,” spent three decades challenging the national pastime’s conventional wisdom, applying rigorous statistical analysis to determine the traits most associated with a player’s true value to his team. Mr. James’s findings didn’t square with most experts’ opinions, and his research was ignored for years.

Until, that is, Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane embraced Mr. James’s philosophy, and put it into practice. Since the A’s have one of the league’s lowest payrolls, Mr. Beane used the findings to maximize his team’s efficiency, focusing on players with the traits Mr. James found most important for winning ballgames, rather than those with flashy statistics. The strategy worked: over the past five years, Mr. Beane’s A’s have finished near the top of the league’s standings despite being outspent by nearly all their competitors.

American education could use a healthy dose of Bill James’s rigorous analysis and Billy Beane’s courage. For years, discussions about improving America’s schools have focused on adding resources. Politicians promise to fix our schools the same way the New York Mets or Texas Rangers try to improve their franchises: spending more money, rather than focusing on efficiency. And the public schools, like the Mets and Rangers, have little to show for their extravagant spending.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, inflation-adjusted education spending per pupil grew by 92 per cent between 1972 and 2002, now totaling more than $9,300 per child. Yet, there’s been no evidence of significant academic improvement. Test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have been flat for three decades and graduation rates have slipped slightly from 75.6 per cent to 72.5 per cent. Little research supports the contention that more education spending improves outcomes.

Unfortunately, taxpayers can no longer afford New York Yankee-sized budgets. Most state governments currently face budget deficits. According to the National Governor’s Association, total state spending is expected to remain flat in the year ahead. That should leave policymakers, much like the Oakland A’s, desperately searching for ways to maximize resources.

Who, then, is the Bill James of education policy≠ A good candidate is Dr. Jay Greene of the Manhattan Institute. For years, Mr. Greene has used statistical analysis to uncover creative solutions to improve the performance of America’s schools. As with Mr. James, Mr. Greene’s findings challenge conventional wisdom.

For example, in 2001, Mr. Greene concluded that a state’s academic achievement was positively correlated with how much freedom parents have to choose their children’s schools. The bottom line: more school choice begets better test scores. As Mr. Greene observed: “Where families have more options in the education of their children, the average student tends to demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement.” Mr. Greene has also found that school choice programs in Milwaukee, Charlotte, San Antonio and Florida have significantly increased student performance with less financial burden on taxpayers.

But who has the courage to be the education system’s Billy Beane, putting into practice Mr. Greene’s unconventional findings≠

So far, Florida Governor Jeb Bush has been most willing to create school choice reforms. Since 1999, Mr. Bush has signed three major school choice laws: vouchers for students in failing schools, a corporate scholarship tax credit, and the McKay scholarship program for special education students.

Another leading contender is Colorado Governor Bill Owens, who last year approved a statewide school voucher program. While that program is currently stalled by a district court’s injunction, Mr. Owens is pushing forward for school choice, embracing an effort to provide school choice to Colorado’s special education students.

Governors Bush and Owens aren’t alone. Already this year, governors in Connecticut, New Hampshire and South Carolina announced their support for school choice initiatives.

Here in Arizona, widespread school choice already exists thanks to charter schools and the tax credit program for scholarship donations. Still, more choice is needed: a recent survey found that at least 5,700 children are on waiting lists for private school scholarships. The Legislature is currently considering a proposal to expand the existing scholarship tax credit program to allow corporate donations.

Expanding parental school choice is likely to increase efficiency by easing the pressure on the state budget while improving outcomes in the state’s school system. For Arizona children, that beats the Arizona Diamondbacks winning the World Series.

Dan Lips is President of Arizona Dream Foundation and an associate scholar with the Goldwater Institute, which bills itself as an independent, nonpartisan research and educational organization dedicated to the study of public policy in Arizona.