Worth the read:

• Mark Schmitt's "What Will a Republican Majority Do Next?" in American Prospect.

We know that if Republicans win control of the House in November, John Boehner will become Speaker of the House. And Boehner's the opposite of what some of us would like to see leading one branch of the federal government. But, suggests Schmitt, things might not turn out as badly as we fear.

Schmitt lists the initiatives Republicans are likely to want to push - repeal of health-care reform, for instance, and killing the enforcement of new regulations - and he speculates that the chances aren't good that Boehner will be able to get any of them through.

• Nicholas Kristof's "1 Soldier or 20 Schools?" in today's New York Times.

Kristof cites the expense of our war in Afghanistan and notes that we'd be far better off spending that money where it would really help: on schools. "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson, whose highly praised work includes getting more than 150 schools created in Afghanistan and Pakistan, says that "not one of them has been destroyed by the Taliban," Kristof writes. Neither have the schools built by CARE.

Education, writes Kristof, "would help build an Afghan economy, civil society and future," and yet we continue to pour our resources into warfare.

And it is a Democratic president who is leading us farther down that path.