What’s next for D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee?

Hard-charging D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced her resignation Wednesday, saying at a news conference that she hopes to "continue to serve the children of this nation" after taking some time off to travel and "figure out what's next." Rhee also said she'd spend time in Sacramento, where her fiance is mayor.

Her resignation is seen as inevitable result of her patron Adrian Fenty's ouster as mayor in the Democratic primary last month. Though Rhee gets top billing as a visionary education reformer in the new movie "Waiting for Superman" and has gathered plenty of admiring plaudits from the Obama administration, she's also a polarizing figure in D.C. civic politics. She's made unpopular decisions to fire administrators and teachers in low-performing schools -- and indeed, her last round of such dismissals is thought to be one reason Fenty was voted out. Rhee effectively eliminated teacher tenure while firing hundreds of teachers during her controversial three years at the helm.

But will her departure leave a vacuum?

Dana Goldstein at the Daily Beast writes that D.C. received $75 million in federal Race to the Top funds to enact Rhee's reforms linking teacher evaluations and performance to pay. If Vincent Gray -- all but assured election as the next mayor in heavily Democratic D.C. -- defers to the wishes of one of his major donors, the American Federation of Teachers, and rejects some of Rhee's proposed reforms, it's possible that the Obama administration could take the money back.

Rhee said at the news conference that "this will be an absolutely seamless transition" because her deputy is taking over as interim chancellor.

However D.C. fares, no one doubts Rhee's ability to snag a plum job either in the Obama administration or at the head of another low-performing urban school system determined to try its hand at reform. Top politicians in Iowa and New Jersey would court her to lead their education departments, the Washington Post notes, and the Obama administration might tap her to replace Arne Duncan as secretary of education if Obama wins a second term. Rhee wouldn't comment to the Post what she thinks her next step will be, but she seems to have quietly created her own website that solicits ideas for education reform.

(Photo of Rhee: AP)