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The Los Angeles School Board made history this week, voting six to one to support massive reform in what has become the second worst school district in the nation.  Led by School Board President Monica Garcia, and thanks to courageous board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who co-authored the Parent School Choice Resolution, the monolithic school district of almost 900 school campuses, will be forced to set free at least 400 of its schools and allow parents and educators at each one to determine its own reform.  Some may transform into charter schools, which have met with great success in Los Angeles.  Others may become pilot schools where teachers will direct their reform.  Some may simply expand school-based management and take control of their own school budgets.

Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage has written a masterful and thorough article laying out the high-level strategic battle over traditional versus same-sex marriage in California and across the country.  The piece first appeared in National Review’s August 10 issue.    The Coalition for Marriage and Family has re-published Gallagher’s article here.   Those who have been following the issue will recognize just how spot-on Gallagher’s analysis is, and everyone who cares about the issue should read the entire article.  Here are some “teaser” paragraphs:

The headline on the story about a new CBS News/New York Times survey was interesting: “Poll: Support for Gay Marriage Dips.” How fast and how far had support for gay marriage had to drop before a mainstream-media headline acknowledged it, even as a “dip”?

Here’s the answer: 9 percentage points.

That’s right: In just a few short months, support for gay marriage in this poll plunged 9 percentage points, from its all-time high of 42 percent to 33 percent. . . .

The long awaited day has arrived.

Facing devastating state budget cuts, loss of taxpayer confidence, and a disappointing teachers’ union which openly resists reform and accountability, this coming Tuesday, August 25, 2009,  the LAUSD School Board will vote to change its failing school district forever.

Parents and teachers across the city will finally have the chance to take back their schools, their school budgets, and leave LAUSD behind if they wish. Three LAUSD School Board members and Mayor Villaraigosa have joined forces to create the Parent School Choice Resolution, which will allow one half, essentially 400 LAUSD schools, to either become charter schools, or be given authority over their own school budgets.  This resolution will effectively cut  LAUSD in half, and give neighborhood schools local control of their budgets, staffs and curriculum.

Bernard Gellman of the Washington Post reports that former Vice-President Dick Cheney is preparing the ground for his upcoming historical autobiography.  All indications are that the retired Cheney is not going to crown his career in public service with….silence.   Few have as much experience in the White House, or with Bush presidencies, than Dick Cheney.   His last years with George W. apparently became less and less, “parallel.”

Gellman reveals in his lengthy article about Cheney’s upcoming book, that the Vice-President felt that Bush “43″ went soft in his second term.  The Vice President also apparently continues to be driven in action and in counsel,  by his deep fears that some hostile state will acquire nuclear weapons.  Gellman’s article also addresses the now-public battle  between President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney over pardoning Lewis  “Scooter” Libby.  President Bush declined, causing a rift between the two.

Michael Barone, author of the Almanac of American Politics, writing in his syndicated column:

Barack Obama is from the university community of Hyde Park in Chicago. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is from San Francisco, and important House committee chairmen are from similar “gentry urban” locales — Henry Waxman from the West Side of Los Angeles, Charles Rangel from a district that includes not only Harlem but much of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Barney Frank from Newton, Mass., next door to Boston. Of the 21 top leadership members and chairmen, five come from districts carried by John McCain, but the average vote in the other 16 districts was 71 percent to 27 percent for Obama.