Not everybody, of course. But for 2,000 Washington, D.C., children languishing in arguably the worst public schools in America, the voucher provision in the spending bill that cleared the Senate yesterday throws a lifeline.

We've laid out our problems with the $373 billion omnibus spending behemoth. But the D.C. provision offering $13 million in vouchers worth up to $7,500 each represents one of the few silver linings -- as much a triumph for civil rights as it is for education reform. The victory in Washington suggests we may finally be turning the corner on equal education opportunity for all in the year that marks the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

It stands too as a tribute to what Republicans can accomplish when they unite on principle. Little more than a year ago, when we wrote our first editorial pushing for its reintroduction, a D.C. choice bill wasn't even on the menu. When one finally materialized, it garnered support from the usual roster of conservative activists and concerned parents.

But we wouldn't be popping the champagne corks today without critical House leadership -- especially Virginia's Tom Davis and Ohio's John Boehner -- aimed at producing something moderates could support. Or without the bipartisan partnership of Democrat Mayor Anthony Williams and Republican George W. Bush.

We'll concede that tucking choice into an omnibus spending bill is not our preferred way of doing business. But Senate Democrats bear the responsibility for this. Effectively they forced it down this avenue by using the five days of Senate debate late last September to conduct a de facto filibuster to stave off an up-or-down vote they knew they would lose.

In explaining her own, courageous decision to support choice, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said she had been persuaded by Mayor Williams's plea that the District's children desperately needed something different -- pronto.

She also said she'd "finally reached the stage" in her career where she could do the right thing without worrying about the political flak. Implicit in her statement is that some colleagues are not at the point where they can do the right thing. Which may be why we have pols such as Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu and Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter fighting to keep D.C. children trapped in public schools they would never let their own kids near.

The good news is that this defense of the miserable status quo is not holding up well in the sunlight. In Colorado, the leader of the NAACP's Colorado Springs branch who was purged for the heresy of writing a column endorsing choice just made his comeback -- as a member of the local school board. Even in D.C., notwithstanding the huffing and puffing from Teddy Kennedy about how he was going to blow vouchers down, when the time finally came the Democratic opposition went down with a whimper.

As much of a challenge as D.C. choice was to Democrats, this was also a test of GOP credibility. After all, a Republican Congress sent a D.C. voucher bill to Bill Clinton's desk. The moral question was whether that was an expression of principle or cheap grandstanding done with the knowledge that it would be vetoed by a Democratic President.

Happily for Republicans, Mr. Specter proved the outlier, morally as well as politically. To our mind, 2,000 voucher spots in a public school system of 65,000 is not nearly enough. But it does give these children a shot at the kind of education our Presidents, Senators and Congressmen insist on for their own kids. And by giving these kids a way out, our hope is that vouchers will force the public schools to start competing to keep the others in.