Fla., Wisconsin Tying More Strings to Vouchers

States require testing and take other oversight steps.

When the Florida Senate took up a measure this month designed to protect voucher programs from legal challenges, the chamber couldn’t have been more divided: The bill was defeated by just one vote. Two days later, however, another voucher bill won unanimous Senate support.

That legislation, which also passed the House 95-21 and which Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, was expected to sign, would impose a new set of accountability requirements, including mandating standardized tests for thousands of voucher students attending private schools with public money.

The action comes just two months after Wisconsin, as part of a legislative package that would allow more Milwaukee students to use state vouchers, enacted new...