Good story from Lake Wales, Fl. The economic challenges that followed the Florida real estate bust in 1926 and the devastating hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 (called the Forgotten Storm--M.K.) reveal state and national parallels with the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2007-08.
In 1931, Florida ranked 43rd in average teacher pay and 39th in money spent annually per student. With a reduced state budget, the school year was shortened to six months and many small schools closed. The average teacher salary by the mid-1930s was only $1,039 per white teacher – about $16,000 in today’s purchasing power. Black teachers were at half that pay. In the late ’30s at our Miami Beach school, it was not unusual to have an out-of-date textbook with four or five names scratched through of students from earlier years. (Lake Wales News)
The reason they call it the "Forgotten Storm" is because politicians at the time downplayed the storm's severity. They were worried about loss of tourism. It was also easily forgotten because no one counted the deaths of hundreds of mainly-black migrant workers. Like Katrina.
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