TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Students would be able to distribute religious literature and given other "basic religious freedoms" under the school code rewrite lawmakers will vote on Friday.
A joint House and Senate committee approved the language over the objection of Jewish lawmakers who said it would open schools up to lawsuits and subject students to harassment.
"This is a dramatic expansion of religious activity in schools and it's unconstitutional," said Sen. Ron Klein, D-West Palm Beach.
He predicted that school districts would spend "hundreds of thousands of dollars" fighting lawsuits over the issue.
But Sen. Don Sullivan, R-St. Petersburg, said, "I find it refreshing that ... religion and the ideas people have are going to be expressed as of the normal discourse."
He agreed with opponents that there should have been more public debate on the language, but said he supported the bill "with protest."
The religious freedom language was the major issue that held up an agreement on the 1,800-page school code rewrite. Lawmakers met until 8:45 p.m. discussing differences in House and Senate language.
The language would also allow students to pray individually or in groups as long as they are not disruptive, express their religious beliefs in homework or art work and to talk with other students about religious topics just as they would political topics.
Among other issues settled by the committee, the Senate agreed to drop a proposal that would have set maximum class sizes by 2010. Sen.s also accepted House language that requires school board members to set their salaries. The state now sets school board salaries.
Also, the House accepted a Senate proposal that would require schools to develop a K-12 foreign language curriculum plan by June 30, 2004. It also agreed to Senate language that would require teachers to tell police if they know about sexual battery committed by a student on another student.
The two sides had come to an agreement on the school code rewrite in the last hours of the regular session that ended March 22, but the Senate did not vote on the proposal before adjourning.
The House originally planned to stick to that agreement, but the Senate began to make changes and the House retreated to its original proposal.
"I thought we could have wrapped this up earlier," Education Secretary Jim Horne said during Thursday night's negotiations. "I would have been very content with the product that was (agreed on) two weeks ago."
The massive bill rewrites the rules that govern schools and universities to reflect the changes voters and lawmakers have made in the last few years to how they are run.
It also streamlines the 19 chapters into 14 chapters, deleting outdating language and provisions and reorganizing the statutes to make the code easier to read.
The full chambers will vote on the proposal Friday - the last scheduled day of the special session.