Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been supported by teachers unions for years, she voted last week for a federally funded school voucher program for the District of Columbia. "I have begun to rethink public education," explained Feinstein, a long-time voucher foe.

"I think we spend too much time supporting old structures and not enough time on what works for children. If we look at what works for children, we would probably agree that different models have to be provided."

The model the District of Columbia hopes to provide, if its voucher plan is approved by the full Senate and the House, is a five-year pilot program offering vouchers of up to $7,500 to the parents of some 2,000 lower-income children. The vouchers could be used to pay for tuition and fees at any private school in the district.

Feinstein's vote does not sit well with voucher opponents, who've made Feinstein the object of their ire.

"She knows better," said Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teacher's Association. "We're just appalled," said Mary Bergan, president of the California Federation of Teachers.

But Feinstein hardly is the only Democrat who has come around to the view that poor children attending underperforming public schools ought to have an opportunity to enroll in private schools where they stand to receive a better education.

Washington Mayor Anthony Williams and City Council member Kevin Chavous are among the city's leading Democrats supporting the voucher program. They recognize the district's school system is shortchanging students. In fact, only one in 10 fourth-graders is proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress. Only one in 16 fourth-graders is proficient in math.

Opponents of the voucher program maintain that the woeful performance of the city's schoolchildren can be solved by investing more in the schools. But the district already spends nearly $11,000 per student, the third-highest level of per-pupil spending in the country.

The teachers unions argue that poor children will not be helped by a voucher program. They suggest those children will be no better off if provided the means to enroll in private schools. But that argument rings hollow, considering that more than one-quarter of the district's public school teachers with children send one or more of their own children to a private school.

Those public school teachers are not to be begrudged for seeking the very best education for their children. And neither should poor parents be begrudged government-funded vouchers empowering them to shop around for the best schools for their children.

Sen. Feinstein has shown much political courage by placing the interests of the district's most needy students above those of the powerful teachers unions. Her support for vouchers sends a message not only to the district's school system, but to inner-city schools throughout the country: Shape up or face the prospect of competing for students (and the per-pupil money they bring with them).