Educational Conflict in the Sunshine State The Story of the 1968 Statewide Teacher Walkout in Florida

"In the state of Florida in the 1960s, the tension between the costs of funding a quality education program and the taxes required to do so exploded into a confrontation between the state's teachers and the Florida power structure. For a century or more, the state had been determined to keep taxes - all taxes - as low as possible. In that context, Florida's education system atrophied to the point that educators felt they could no longer continue to ignore what it was doing to their students. After years of begging, cajollng, and threatening, the Florida Education Association called for a statewide strike of all teachers in order to force education improvements." "Don Cameron describes the statewide walkout of 35,000 teachers in Florida in 1968, a seminal event in the history of Florida and in the teacher union movement. It rocked the Florida power structure that had allowed education in the state to deteriorate to the point of scandal. The walkout lasted three weeks at the state level, but it continued for up to seven weeks in some local school districts, ending in a sea of recriminations, lawsuits, and ill feelings. Its repercussions went on for decades."--BOOK JACKET.