TALLAHASSEE — Any child in Florida could be permitted to get a school voucher for pretty much any reason under a sweeping proposed constitutional amendment filed Tuesday by House Speaker-to-be Marco Rubio.

Rubio, answering Gov. Jeb Bush's call to rescue the existing voucher programs from a recent Florida Supreme Court ruling, opens the door wide to unlimited vouchers.

The proposed constitutional language would specifically permit vouchers for disabled students and poor students — reflecting two existing programs that between them have 29,641 children — but then adds: "or who would otherwise benefit from the availability of such programs to increase educational choices."

That wording would allow lawmakers to create voucher programs essentially without limitation, legislators said.

Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican who for the past two legislative sessions has unsuccessfully pushed legislation to add oversight to the existing programs, said such an expansion would be prohibitively expensive.

"The effect it would have is to basically drive a stake through the heart of public education," he said Wednesday.

While the House, which has generally followed Bush's lead during his tenure, is likely to approve such a proposal with the required three-fifths majority, it is not clear whether sufficient support exists in the more politically moderate Senate.

Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Orlando, a voucher supporter, said finding the needed 24 votes in the 40-member Senate would be "difficult," even with a 26-14 Republican majority. Even more problematic, he said, would be the effort needed to get voters to pass such an amendment.

"That's a difficult sell," Webster said.

Port St. Lucie Republican Sen. Ken Pruitt, the incoming Senate president and the other lawmaker mentioned by Bush on Tuesday as a sponsor for Bush's effort to protect vouchers, said Wednesday that he had not seen the proposal from Rubio, R-West Miami.

Current Senate President Tom Lee said he had first seen the proposed language minutes earlier, and that his members would have to study the idea closely.

Further, he said that even if the legislature put the question on the ballot and voters approved it, the legislature would have to set rules for implementing the amendments, and he did not know how eager lawmakers would be to expand school vouchers beyond the existing programs.

"Particularly in the Senate, I think we would move very slowly and methodically," Lee said.

The state's high court in January ruled that a program created by Bush, the Opportunity Scholarship vouchers for children at repeatedly failing public schools, was unconstitutional because the state did not have the authority to set up a private school system in parallel to the public schools authorized by the state constitution.

It also left standing an earlier 1st District Court of Appeals ruling that struck down the program because it sent public dollars to religious schools.

Although justices wrote specifically about the Opportunity Scholarship vouchers — which now go to 733 students — their broad language makes both voucher supporters and opponents believe the ruling could also mean the end for McKay vouchers for disabled children and the Corporate Income Tax Credit vouchers for poorer children.

In each of the past two legislative sessions, the state Senate has approved legislation that would impose some oversight and "accountability" measures to the programs, but has both times been stopped by Bush's office and his allies in the House, who have wanted looser standards.

Problems with the programs include the conviction of an Ocala man for stealing $268,125 in corporate tax credit voucher money; the disclosure that a private school in Tampa founded by a man indicted on terrorism charges was getting more than $300,000 in vouchers; allegations that an Opa-locka school was taking voucher money for students who were enrolled in regular public schools; and reports that home-school groups, including one in Boynton Beach, were receiving McKay voucher money for "parent-directed" education.