Sometimes the tone of a headline speaks volumes:

1,000 use vouchers to flee D.C. schools - CNN

Many D.C. School Vouchers Go Unused - Washington Post

The CNN headline implies that D.C. schools are so bad that people have to flee them. The Washington Post, however, implies that the voucher program is unpopular and unnecessary. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.

The figures seem to indicate that D.C. schools are bad, and people are fleeing. CNN offers some real numbers about the popularity of the program which the Post ignores. During just 17 days last spring, the families of more than 8500 students inquired about the voucher program, a figure that the Post doesn't mention. Of those, 1800 of them met the income cap. However, the Post goes out of it's way to emphasize that while 1359 vouchers were approved, 290 went unused, leaving just over 1000 students actually using the program. Using the Post's numbers (1359 approved, 290 dropped out) that translates to about 21% of approved vouchers that go unused. The Post calls this "many".

Regardless of how many students use the program, vouchers appear to be working. Here is something else CNN emphasizes (that the Post minimizes):

The program provides up to $7,500 per child to cover tuition, fees and other educational expenses. While tuition rates range from $3,000 to $22,415 per year, participating institutions have waived costs exceeding the grant limit, or provided other financial aid.

Considering the income cap is $34,400 a year for a family of four, this is pretty significant. Before entering into the voucher program, how many of these low-income kids were getting what amounts to grants and scholarships to private schools with annual tuitions as high as $22,000? You would think that, if anything, rather than pooh-poohing the idea Democrats would be hailing school vouchers as some sort of private school "diversity" program.