On Sep 10, Chicago's teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years, just as the city's 400,000 students were starting school. After 10 months of negotiations, contract talks between City Hall and teachers' union leaders broke down over issues of pay, teacher evaluation, and the rights of laid-off teachers. Two months before the presidential election, the strike presents the incongruous sight of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Pres Obama's former chief of staff and one of the leaders of his reelection effort, in the middle of a fight that the White House surely wants to go away immediately. Emanuel's willingness to provoke a showdown with the unions reflects deeper frustration with an education establishment that even Democrats believe has become an impediment to reform. The saving grace for the Chicago teachers is that Emanuel and other pro-reform politicians remain equally vexed about how to solve America's schools crisis.