WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to block consideration of a Republican-backed school vouchers program in the nation’s capital, leaving its fate in question.

Senate Republicans’ attempt to limit debate and avoid a filibuster failed by two votes and came just hours after President Clinton said he opposes the plan to give low-income families public money to send their children to private schools.

“I will veto any legislation that damages our commitment to public education and to high national standards,” Clinton said. “I call upon Congress to challenge our public schools, to change our public schools, but not to walk away from them.”

House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Clinton’s comments “a tragedy” and noted that on Tuesday students at the city’s Ballou High School had to be relocated because of a leaky roof.

“I think it is wrong to object to the poorest children in this city having an opportunity to go to a school that is safe,” the Georgia Republican said. He also challenged the president to visit Ballou.

The debate, while centering on the District of Columbia, is just as much about national education reforms.

Voucher programs are now operating in Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, Vermont and Arizona, according to Clint Bolick, litigation director for the Institute for Justice, which defends voucher programs in court.

Bolick said each of the five programs is being challenged in court.

“The president’s hypocrisy on this issue seems to know no bounds,” he said, noting that Clinton’s own daughter, Chelsea, attended the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, vehemently opposes vouchers, saying the money should be spent to help the masses rather than a few.

The vouchers would be available to about 2,000 of the city school system’s 78,000 children.