The governor's proposed constitutional amendment to revive school vouchers received a needed renovation Tuesday when a Senate committee whittled down its scope and then passed it. But the measure remains in serious trouble in the upper chamber.

The Senate Education Committee voted 6-1 to ask voters to carve into the state Constitution the right for children in Florida to receive a state-paid voucher to attend private schools.

But to win the support of reluctant senators, the bill's sponsor asked the committee to limit vouchers to those who can qualify under existing state programs. Several senators have expressed reservations about reversing the Florida Supreme Court's ruling throwing out the state's first voucher law.

Sen. Dan Webster, a Winter Park Republican, said the narrower approach was necessary to chip away at the opposition to the proposal in the Senate, where at least eight Republicans and most of the 14 Democrats oppose the bill. The Senate must have 24 votes to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

A CONTRAST

Under Webster's amendment, children in failing public schools, disabled students and low-income children receiving vouchers from corporate tax credits would be the ones eligible for vouchers.

By contrast, the House continued to barrel ahead with a more wide-ranging amendment. The House Choice and Innovation Committee stayed true to the governor's original plan and voted 5-2 for a bill that would allow any child in Florida to attend private schools with vouchers.

'You and I have an obligation to allow the people of the state to change our Constitution,' said Rep. Marco Rubio, the West Miami Republican who is sponsoring the proposal in the House.

Both chambers' proposals are designed to overturn the state Supreme Court decision in January that declared the state's Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional. Those vouchers were a cornerstone of Gov. Jeb Bush's 1999 'A-Plus' school improvement plan, allowing students in repeatedly failing schools to accept state 'opportunity scholarships' to attend private schools.

About a dozen family members of students attending private schools using voucher money attended the Senate meeting to plead with lawmakers to find a way to continue the program.

Camille Merilus, whose 16-year-old son Jason attends Ebenizer Christian Academy in Little Haiti on a voucher paid for by the corporate tax credit program, said he left Miami at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning to drive to Tallahassee hoping to persuade the committee to ``send their commitment to the ballot.'

`HAVE A CHOICE'

With a voucher program, 'those of us who do not have the financial means to do better will at least have a choice,' he said.

Both chambers' proposals also attempt to win voter support by linking the voucher plan to a requirement that school districts spend 65 percent of their budgets in the classroom rather than on administrative and support services.

Webster said he isn't confident the fixes are enough to get it through the full Senate, 'but it's not going to keep me from trying,' he said.

Still, the Senate bill is going to need more window dressing if it is going to pass this session, Webster said.

The Senate has long expressed concern about the lack of accountability in the state's voucher programs and for the past four years has advanced a bill to impose state oversight and standards on schools that take voucher money, only to be rebuffed by the House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the accountability measure again on Tuesday, and Webster said he is considering linking it to the proposed constitutional amendment to win even more Senate votes.

'If this bill had passed two years ago, the Supreme Court decision might not have been what it was,' said Sen. Jim King, the sponsor of the accountability bill. ``I truly believe that the things that they identified in their negative decision mirrored the things that we tried to cover, and I'm hopeful the inclusion of these accountability measures will stave off further erosion of the voucher system.'

Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.