An appeals court has ruled Florida's voucher plan for education does not violate the state constitution when it allows public money to be spent at private schools.

The 20-page opinion issued Tuesday by the 1st District Court of Appeal overturns a ruling Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith Jr. made in March. Smith said the state's new policy of paying private school tuition so children could leave a failing public school violated the state constitution's guarantee of a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools."

Said Appellate Judge Charles Kahn Jr. in the opinion he wrote for a three-judge panel, "Contrary to the conclusion of the trial court, and the argument advanced by appellees, (the state constitution) does not unalterably hitch the requirement to make adequate provision for education to a single, specified engine, that being the public school system."

The latest ruling is expected to be appealed again, but the government and attorneys for parents who receive state money were quick to declare a victory. Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said he believed the opinion will withstand the appeals process. He said it will help Florida as well as other states that are considering using vouchers to help children escape poorly functioning schools.

"It continues to support the notion that parents deserve more choice in their child's educational opportunity," Brogan said. "I think it does enhance the whole debate. I think it provides an additional opportunity for people who believe that they've been right all along to make the case that the courts continue to agree."

Attorneys on the other side -- representing the Florida Education Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Florida PTA, the League of Women Voters and a handful of families and educators -- said their appeal most likely will take the case to the state Supreme Court.

"If you've got to have someone rule against you, the court did it in a manner that gives us an additional opportunity," said Tallahassee attorney Dexter Douglass. "By doing this instead of sending it back to the trial court, it gives us the vehicle to advance it up to the Supreme Court."

The three appellate judges -- Kahn, Peter Webster and William Van Nortwick Jr. -- made their decision after hearing arguments in August. The case won't go to the Supreme Court unless the judges accede to the losing attorneys' request to certify that the subject is of such great state importance the high court must rule on it.

The appellate decision won't have an immediate impact. The 51 Pensacola-area students who entered the program the first year were allowed to continue while the case wends its way through what promises to be a lengthy appeals process. No new students were added this school year anyway because no public schools met the criteria of getting an F from the state two years out of four.

Furthermore, the appellate panel decided just one of several challenges that voucher opponents made. It sent the case back to Smith for a trial on other issues, such as whether giving state tax money to religious schools violates the constitution. Those issues will most likely not be decided unless those suing the government lose their chance before the Supreme Court.

Still, Matthew Berry of the Institute for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that represents the parents using vouchers, called the ruling "a tremendous victory for the children of Florida and a tremendous defeat for the teachers unions and other defenders of the status quo."