To be fair and acceptable, school choice legislation should observe the following principles:

1. It must not disturb families happy with their child's current placement at a public or private school.

2. It must not reduce per-pupil spending in the public schools and should not increase total public spending on education except for those increases that would naturally occur as the result of increased student numbers or a growing commitment to education on the part of Florida's citizens.

3. It must ensure that participation in the system of tax-funded scholarships is voluntary for both the families and the schools. No person or educational institution will be mandated to do anything.

4. It must include all schools - public, private, and religiously affiliated - that wish to participate and are prepared to accept reasonable measures of accountability.

5. It must introduce no new regulations on private schools that would threaten their mission, identity or autonomy; and offer a similar and prompt deregulation to those public schools that wish it.

6. It must include provisions to assure that children from low-income families have fair access to schools their families prefer.

7. It must safeguard the interests of the families and the taxpayers by ensuring that no school that advocates unlawful behavior; teaches hatred of any person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion or gender; or deliberately provides false or misleading information shall be eligible to redeem tax-funded scholarships.

8. Its implementation must be gradual, orderly, and fair, protecting individual schools from abrupt large-scale reductions or unwanted increases in their number of students.

9. It must phase in scholarships for children who are already outside the public school system including those who are home-schooled.

10. It must be compliant with federal and state constitutional provisions, readily understood by ordinary citizens, and able to be implemented without excessive administration.