TAMPA -- Florida public schools compare badly to those in many states and need more money if they are to provide the high-quality education that voters want, according to a new report aimed at prodding Gov. Jeb Bush and legislators to action.

Members of Florida's Constitutional Accountability Commission put finishing touches Friday on a report that measured schools against a list of academic and funding criteria and declared them among the poorest in the country.

Voters approved an amendment to the state constitution in 1998 calling for a "high quality system of free public schools," but panel members said it isn't happening.

"Florida is not competing on a national level. That is pretty obvious," said Steven Shimp, a Fort Myers contractor serving on the 30-member panel organized by the Florida School Boards Association and Florida Tax Watch, a consumer-watchdog group.

The governor and Legislature will be sent the report after the bipartisan panel makes slight changes it discussed Friday and gives final approval to the document.

Panel members hope a groundswell of support from the public and business community will force state leaders to pour more resources into the schools.

One of the legislative leaders the group hopes to influence was quick to defend recent moves to improve Florida schools, however.

"We are meeting the constitutional requirement for high-quality schools," said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach. "Everything we are doing is to make sure our students are meeting high standards."

Only this week Bush and Lynn, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, announced plans to pump more money into teacher pay and make other improvements. Funding would be contingent, however, on voters agreeing to scale back costly class-size limitations they approved in 2002.

Panel members said the system won't be improved by juggling school money from one concern to cover another.

"We need to look over our funding sources and find the money to move forward," said Joan Minnis, a commission member and principal of Thurgood Marshall Middle School in St. Petersburg.

The commission concluded that state schools are above the national average in only three of 14 categories evaluated. Schools should score above-average in at least eight of the categories in order to claim excellence, panel members said.

Panel members say national comparisons give a better evaluation of Florida schools than the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for students and the state's letter grades for schools, which focus only on Florida.

Standards that commission members considered included Florida reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams administered to students across the country; high-school graduation rates; scores on the ACT and SAT college-entrance exams; the number of students staying in and completing college; and student-teacher ratios in comparison with other states.

Florida showed above-average only in third-grade reading and in the number of students returning for a second year at community colleges.

When it came to money, the study found that the amount Florida spends per student ranks 45th among the 50 states. The state also lags in average teacher salary and funding of colleges. Pay for beginning teachers -- one item Bush has pledged to raise --already is above-average when adjusted for a lower cost of living in Florida.

Panel members want legislation requiring the state's school system to be judged each year on how well it is exceeding the national average on key standards. This would add a new level of accountability above the FCAT and the school grades.

More than two years ago, the School Boards Association threatened to sue the state over school funding, but backed away and instead formed the panel, which includes prominent Republicans and Democrats.

Former state Comptroller Bob Milligan, a Republican, is co-chairman of the panel along with former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat.

"Litigation is probably on the horizon," Milligan said, "unless something is done to clearly support the constitutional amendment and show we are moving in the direction of a quality education system."

Education groups and others in several states have sued state officials demanding more funding for schools. Florida educators are hesitant to make that move, however.

Tom Greer, an Osceola County School Board member who is president of the School Boards Association, said he favors cooperation.

"Let's come up with a plan and see if we can get the governor and Legislature to go along," Greer said.