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, cajoling, and threatening, the Florida Education Association called for a statewide strike of all teachers in order to force education improvements.