Detractors, critics and even some supporters hailed the resignation of state education superintendent Paul Pastorek as an opportunity to develop better collaboration among education leaders and lessen a divisive atmosphere that pervaded nearly every public policy decision involving the topic.

But even if light-hearted, welcoming and far less in-your-face than Pastorek, the next superintendent walks into a tinderbox of tough education issues that are controversial at their core‚ decisions about budgeting policy, teacher evaluations, school grading systems and local school control.

Group hugs and unity moments aren’t likely to become the norm no matter who’s in charge.

“It’s going to be tough. I don’t think anyone can get this job done without having some people saying, ‘This is painful,’” said Jim Garvey, vice president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Any question about the issue should have been settled as soon as the haggling began over an interim leader for the Department of Education, which quickly devolved into political disputes and a struggle for control between the governor, those who disagree with him and everyone else who wants a say in the selection of a new superintendent.

Pastorek received intense praise as an innovator and reformer who traveled the country touting the successes in improving Louisiana education and who strengthened accountability. His tenure was marked by measurable success. For example, the number of schools labeled “academically unacceptable” fell substantially, as did the number of students who are dropping out of school.

He generated nearly as much heated criticism as praise, however, as he worked to boost charter schools, increase private funding in education and keep control over state-run schools that other leaders argued should be returned to local control. Complaints involved his big ticket salary, his management style and his spending practices.

As one education leader described it, Pastorek “kicked ant piles.”

Pastorek’s announcement last week that he was resigning from the position he held since 2007‚ and that his last work day was Friday‚ took much of the education community by surprise and provoked emotions ranging from tears to high-fives, depending on who was doing the reacting.

The 11-member BESE is charged with choosing a successor, but anyone with a stake in education or an opinion on it is weighing in. The refrains are common, and clearly a bit of a dig at regular complaints about the difficulty of working with Pastorek: more collaboration, more discussions with education stakeholder groups and more communication.

But everyone can sit at the table and that won’t make the divisiveness go away.

If a majority of BESE members still support policies pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and Pastorek to tie teacher evaluations to test scores, to broaden the charter school movement, to maintain state control of failing schools taken over by the state and to assign letter grades to schools, that will keep putting them at odds with teacher unions and other public school officials who oppose those types of ideas.

The intense wrangling over a Pastorek successor is serving to showcase the divisions and possibly create new ones.

And whoever BESE chooses as an interim successor is only a temporary pick for a few months. BESE members’ terms expire in January 2012, so the next board will find itself greeted with the sharp education divides as soon as they take office.

Melinda DeSlatte covers Louisiana government for the Associated Press.