TALLAHASSEE -- More than 170,000 public-school students with failing reading scores would be eligible to attend private schools at taxpayer expense under the latest expansion of Gov. Jeb Bush's education agenda.

"If a school is not able to provide the type of instruction a child needs, we allow parents to choose one that does," Bush said as he outlined the program he is submitting to state legislators. Giving people a choice, he said, is "as American as apple pie."

The package would continue the changes Bush started after taking office in 1999. Key elements had been rolled out during the past few weeks, including a call to rescind limits on school class sizes and set teacher starting pay at $35,000 statewide.

The governor already has supporters lined up in the Legislature, including Senate Education Chairwoman Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, and House Education Council Chairman Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.

"When this governor decides to do something, he takes the big bite. He goes for it all the way," Lynn said.

Bush's original "A-Plus Plan for Education" created the state's current school grading system and the nation's first statewide voucher program, which lets students in failing schools attend private schools with vouchers he called "opportunity scholarships."

His new program would offer "reading compact" scholarships to struggling students who score at the bottom of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in reading for three consecutive years.

Bush's plan to expand vouchers comes as the Florida Parent-Teacher Association and the state teachers union are challenging the legality of "opportunity scholarships." The Florida Supreme Court will consider the case this spring.

"This was really controversial in 1999. It was a big darn deal. I don't think it's as controversial now," Bush said.

While the judiciary has a role to play in determining the constitutionality of laws, he said, "In the interim, we have a duty to reform our system."

Bush's new plan, dubbed "A-Plus-Plus," also calls for a differential pay scale for teachers, offering more money to educators who choose to teach in poor or troubled schools or who teach subjects where there is a teacher shortage, such as in math and science. And there's a reward program for the state's top principals.

Raymond Gaines, director of secondary education in Seminole County, said such pay changes are needed.

"Something has to be done to attract top-quality people into environments where there is a need," Gaines said.

With the pay increases he would like to see teachers get, the governor estimated that the total cost of his package would be nearly $500 million -- about the same amount the state is planning to funnel into class-size reductions next year.

Bush wants the Legislature to authorize a statewide referendum this year to let voters decide whether to establish a more lenient class-size standard than voters approved in 2002.

He wants to use districtwide averages for classes instead of capping them at 18 students up to third grade, 22 in grades 4 through 8, and 25 students in high school. That change, he said, would provide the cash needed to accomplish some of his goals.

Tom Greer of the Osceola County School Board said Bush is on the mark with class size, saying his fast-growing county cannot hire enough teachers and build enough buildings to meet current standards for 2010.

At the same time, he said Bush is off the mark with vouchers.

"Taxpayers' dollars should not be going to schools that are not held to the same accountability as the public schools," said Greer, who also is president of the Florida School Boards Association."

Lake County Superintendent Anna Cowin, a former Republican state senator, said she thinks vouchers can force public schools to work harder.

"The voucher is a hammer," she said, "and you need an opportunity for a student to leave a system that isn't working."

At Winter Park High School, media specialist Marion Cannon said that the only way increases in starting teachers' salaries will work is if pay is raised for all teachers, but she doubted that would happen. Cannon also said the teacher-pay initiative is only an attempt to dump the class-size limits.

"All Bush is trying to do is derail this effort to make education more personal between the students and the teacher," Cannon said.

Bowing to recommendations from educators, Bush said he also would like to see the FCAT given later in the school year so students have more time to learn what they are required to know. Students also would not take the science FCAT until the 11th grade instead of the 10th.

Students who cannot pass the 10th-grade FCAT -- now a requirement to graduate -- would be able to substitute equivalent scores on the two nationally accepted college-entrance exams, the SAT and ACT.

Bush also would let parents and teachers look at the test's questions and answers -- but not view individual student results.

Bush estimated that up to 10,000 poor readers, or 6 percent of those eligible, might actually take advantage of the "reading compact" vouchers and move to a private school. If they do, however, the proposal as currently written would not require them to take the FCAT again.

Mary Shanklin and Dave Weber of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.