militant teachers. By the end of March, nearly all teachers were back at work, and the strike was over. Assessment of the strike The strike was the nation's first statewide teachers' strike, keeping more than 40 percent of Florida teachers at home. Education funding rose significantly, but the organization felt that it did not rise enough to meet the needs identified by the teachers. From this perspective, the strike was not a success. However, the FEA did obtain much higher funding for education and convinced Gov. Kirk to break his no-new-taxes pledge. The strike had a profound effect on the national NEA. Following the 1968 Florida strike, delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly (the organization's national governing body) approved a resolution which—for the first time—sanctioned teacher strikes (calling them "withdrawal of services") and denouncing state attempts to ban them. The resolution was a direct outcome of the statewide Florida strike. A longer-term effect of the strike was to dramatically improve the outlook for teachers' unions in Florida. FEA members were radicalized by the strike and the statewide federation later won significant court and legislative victories which legalized and promoted the formation of teacher and education unions in the state. Although the 1968 strike led to the fragmentation of the FEA in 1974, education unions merged back into one organization in 2000, and as of 2006 unions were recognized in school districts covering 90 percent of the state's education workers. The FEA is now one of Florida's largest unions, and the second-largest in the Florida AFL-CIO. Notes References Berry, Mike. "Teacher Unions Want to Join Forces". Orlando Sentinel. June 6, 1998. Farrell, Jodi Mailander. "1968 Strike a Landmark for Schools". Miami Herald. February 2, 1998. Fish, Sandra. "School Crisis Echoes '67 Deadlock". Orlando Sentinel. March 16, 1992. Hopkins, John. "A Review of Events in Professional Negotiations". Theory Into Practice. 4:2 (April 1965). Kleindienst, Linda. "Merged Teacher Union Is Poised for Education Battle". Orlando Sentinel. June 19, 2000. Mailander, Jodi. "From Teacher to Union Boss". Miami Herald. September 17, 1996. Park, Paula. "The Old School of Power". Miami New Times. September 19, 1996. Rado, Diane. "For Florida Schools, 'Mr. T' is King of Blackboard Jungle". St. Petersburg Times. September 24, 1996. Selden, David. The Teacher Rebellion. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1985. Talalay, Sarah and Kleindienst, Linda. "Unions Seek Strength in Numbers". Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. May 21, 1999. "Teachers' Boycott". Time. August