Gov. Jerry Brown is poised for a big victory

And Gov. Jerry Brown is on the verge of a monumental personal triumph — a legacy builder, for better or worse. Nobody really knows.

It’s an example of landmark legislating with one-party rule. The governor pretty much gets his way while being restrained by the Legislature, led by fellow Democrats.
Also credit the Legislature’s ability, since 2011, to pass a budget on a simple majority vote. The backroom dealing would have been daunting if a two-thirds vote were still required.
In this case, inner-city school districts with lots of “high need” students stand to win — at the expense of suburban middle-class kids — but not as decidedly as the governor had proposed.
It’s happening as part of a new state spending plan that the Legislature must pass by June 15. School funding is the big-ticket item in a budget bazaar called the Joint Conference Committee.