School district chief executive Paul Vallas last night confirmed to the Daily News that he will leave Philadelphia at the end of this school year, despite having a contract extension that could have kept him here until 2009. Vallas' decision stunned parents and district insiders alike, coming on a day in which speculation mounted by the hour that he had been tapped to become the next leader of the Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans school district….

Vallas, 53, spent four days last week in New Orleans serving as an education consultant at the invitation of Paul G. Pastorek, Louisiana's superintendent of education. The Recovery School District is under state control.

Vallas…. said last night… that he, wife Sharon and their three sons would return to the family's Chicago hometown this summer.

Vallas' decision to leave comes a week after the district announced that Chief Academic Officer Gregory Thornton was one of two finalists to become the next superintendent of Seattle Public Schools….

Louisiana officials would not confirm that Vallas was their man for New Orleans.

Mensah M. Dean, Philadelphia Daily News, April 12.

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The first question for the industry is whether this means the end of Edison in Philadelphia.  The budget is a mess and - other things being equal - outsiders are the first to go. And Edison's academic results were simply not sufficient to make taking the firm off the chopping block an obvious choice.  If Edison does not retain its position in Philadelphia, its owners should probably cut the firm up for parts and rebrand what is not sold off, because it is very hard to envision enough superintendents desperate enough for school improvement, and lacking in other plausible options - including other outsourcing arrangements, to make an effort to convince their school board to hire Edison. Years ago the saying was "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." that can't possibly apply to the EMO today. Indeed, Edison manages to hang on in Philly, it is in for a very long rehabilitation - and if managers are not confident about dramatic improvements in the performance of those schools, they are merely prolonging the firm's agony.

Should he move to New Orleans, the second question is how the Chief Executive's recent experience with school management will affect his attitudes on private sector involvemnent in public education reform and his contracting policies towards school improvement providers in general. If this were the man who moved from Chicago to Philadelphia, New Orleans might be considered the next Klondike. Now, that is just not obvious.

The third question is New Orleans itself. Even if it were to become a lucrative source of contracts, providers need to consider the growing importance of academic success. Absent the right conditions - teachers who want to implement the outsourced program, and a central office prepared to make sure the necessary supports are in place - short term revenues gains will turn into long term losses. If you doubt this, you might ask John Chubb at Edison about Philly.