Despite being offered at 16 percent raise over four years by the city, teachers are refusing to end the strike until they receive a 35 percent raise and jobs for fellow teachers who have been laid off during the city’s budget crunch.

Yahoo! News’ Liz Goodwin lays out the situation pretty well here, explaining how the strikes leads back to reforms enacted by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Likewise, she points out that the the reforms Emanuel is pushing in Chicago are different than those of former DC school Chancellor Michelle Rhee because they do not include raises for teachers whose students perform well. And even Rhee’s reforms ended up costing both her and her boss, DC mayor Adrian Fenty their jobs despite the fact that their reforms lead to higher graduation rates and better scores on national assessment tests.