Hey! [your honor]! Leave them kids alone?

The local print media has started to stir on the issue of education with the Daily News saying that school district CEO Paul Vallas's future is "murky" and the Inquirer calls it "uncertain." Both articles include information about the position of the Magnificent Six on Paul Vallas with their opinions being overwhelmingly supportive.

The Inquirer is also starting a series that evaluates the performance of the 2001 take over of the schools by the state:

In 2001, the Philadelphia School District was a mess financially and educationally. It needed the jolt that came down from the state capital that December in the form of a takeover.

Not well enough to justify complacency.

The debate seems to focus on whether Vallas should stay or go, what the school district will do in the face of possible cuts to state funding, and whether personality clashes among elected officials will resurface to undermine any of the progress that has been made.

No one is asking, though, whether the eventual end point should be a return of control to the city and the mayor.

Perhaps that would come with a similar governance structure to the one that's in place now which replaced what the Inquirer calls "the old, ineffectual school board." Other mayors have taken an active leadership in the governance of their schools, essentially saying "the buck stops here" and tying the performance of the schools to their own re-election possibilities.

Without the prospect of that control in the near future, does that make the schools an issue for the next mayoral election? At least one candidate thinks so, saying that education is the first or second issue in most polls. Our own experience with one focus group under our belt and anecdotal evidence from our Counter Intelligence Unit says otherwise. Even if we accept that good schools are at the top of most people's minds, is it an issue for the mayor's race if the mayor doesn't have direct control?

There's an easy way for it to become an issue... just let one of these candidates say that they'd work to regain local control of the schools and then tell us what plan he or she has to make them better.