By Stephanie Simon and James B. Kelleher

(Reuters) – Chicago teachers walking picket lines on Monday, in a strike that has closed schools across the city, are taking on not just their combative mayor but a powerful education reform movement that is transforming public schools across the United States.

The new vision, championed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who used to run Chicago’s schools, calls for a laser focus on standardized tests meant to gauge student skills in reading, writing and math. Teachers who fail to raise student scores may be fired. Schools that fail to boost scores may be shut down.

CHICAGO, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Chicago public school teachers
will strike for the first time in a quarter century on Monday
after they failed to reach agreement with the nation’s
third-largest school district over education reforms sought by
Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The historic confrontation between Emanuel, President Barack
Obama’s former top White House aide, and organized labor in the
president’s home city could have national implications for
education reform and politics in an election year.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – When Rahm Emanuel resigned as President Barack Obama’s chief White House enforcer two years ago, many Washington pundits wondered why he abandoned a place at the pinnacle of power to try to govern one of America’s most unruly cities.

Now as Chicago’s mayor, Emanuel is confronting nearly 30,000 angry striking teachers, 350,000 children out of school as of Monday and parents scrambling for caregivers or forced to miss work to stay home with their kids.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago teachers and officials of the nation’s third-largest school district were locked in negotiations with just hours to go before a midnight deadline for a strike over Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s demand for sweeping school reforms.

The Chicago Teachers Union scheduled a 10 p.m. local time news conference to give an update on the bitter and protracted talks but gave no hint if a deal was close.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A bitter dispute between unionized public school teachers and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has residents of the third-largest U.S. city bracing for a possible strike on Monday in a showdown over education reform that has national implications.

Nearly 30,000 public school teachers and support staff represented by the Chicago Teachers Union have vowed to walk off the job starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday if an impasse in contract talks with the city is not broken.

DETROIT (Reuters) – In the maelstrom of criticism surrounding America’s unionized public teachers, the woman running the second-largest educator union says time has come to collaborate on public school reform rather than resist.

Randi Weingarten, re-elected this week for a third term as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) with 98 percent of the vote, wants her 1.5 million members to be open to changes that might improve public schools.

DETROIT, July 31 (Reuters) – In the maelstrom of criticism
surrounding America’s unionized public teachers, the woman
running the second-largest educator union says time has come to
collaborate on public school reform rather than resist.

Randi Weingarten, re-elected this week for a third term as
president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) with 98
percent of the vote, wants her 1.5 million members to be open
to changes that might improve public schools.

DETROIT (Reuters) – After suffering a string of political setbacks in the industrial heartland, organized labor hopes Michigan voters will help turn the tide in a November election by supporting a state constitutional amendment for the right to unionize.

The union-backed ballot proposal would make collective bargaining a constitutionally protected right and cripple efforts to pass so-called “right to work” legislation in the state. Critics say the measure, which would cover private as well as public employees, would be a “death warrant” for Michigan’s economy because it would discourage businesses from bringing new jobs to Michigan and encourage some already in the state to leave.

DETROIT (Reuters) – As representatives of America’s second-largest teachers union gather in Detroit for the start of a four-day convention, the stark prospects facing their 1.5 million members are right here in front of them.

In June, an official appointed by the state of Michigan imposed sweeping wage and benefit cuts on Detroit educators represented by the American Federation of Teachers as the debt-heavy, tax-deficient city struggles to maintain basic services.

By James B. Kelleher

(Reuters) – Authorities in Iowa searching for two young cousins who disappeared last week said on Friday they were now treating the case as an abduction after an FBI dive team determined the girls’ remains were not in a lake near where they were last seen.

Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, disappeared around noon last Friday shortly after they left their grandmother’s house near Evansdale in northeast Iowa.