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making the difficult trek until teachers return to the classroom.
• But Davis and other parents and caregivers who scrambled Monday to figure out what to do with more than 350,000 idle children must do it all again Tuesday -- and perhaps longer -- after the teachers union and district failed to reach a settlement to end the first strike in a quarter century.
• Chicago School Board President David Vitale said he thought an agreement could be reached on Tuesday. But Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis sounded less optimistic, saying the district has not changed its offers on the two most contentious issues, performance evaluations and recall rights for laid-off teachers.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The massive teacher strike in Chicago offers a high-profile test for the nation's teacher unions, which have seen their political influence threatened as a growing reform movement seeks to expand charter schools, get private companies involved with failing schools and link teacher evaluations to student test scores.
• The unions are taking a major stand on teacher evaluations, one of the key issues in the Chicago dispute. If they lose there, it could have ripple effects around the country.
• Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are "a bit weaker," said Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "They are playing on more hostile terrain and they are facing opponents the likes of which they have not had to face before."
• Members of the Chicago Teachers Union -- the AFT's oldest local -- walked off the job Monday for the first time in 25 years over issues that include pay raises, classroom conditions, job security and teacher evaluations.
• They are pitted against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a powerful Democrat -- and former chief of staff to President Barack Obama -- who wants to extract more concessions from teachers while the school district faces a nearly $700 million deficit.
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