Female: I thought it was going to be like a couple of people in the grass and were talking and speaking amongst each other. No, this turned out to be bigger than we thought it was going to be.

Male: This program has worked well, it has been successful for the schools, for the parents, and more importantly for the children. Well right now, some folks in Congress want to end this program. But we’re not going to accept that, are we?

On May 6, 2009 hundreds of students, parents and activists gathers for a rally to save the DC Voucher Program.

The program, which Congress effectively killed earlier this year, awards $7500 per year to help low income student sin DC pay tuition for private schools.

Male: As a parent, I don’t need the government telling me what I can and cannot do when it comes to the education of my child.

Male: As genuine, I'm here as a husband, I'm here as a father and I'm also here as a concerned citizen.

Male: I'm an Obama supporter, but people have their different issues and people have their different ways of going about things. I'm pretty sure he wants the best for these kids, as every parent want the best for theirs.

Male: The whole world is watching Washington DC. Every parent should have the right of choice. Every parent should be able to choose the best school for their children.

Male: I think that human rights, I think of opportunity, I think of quality are democratic issues. This is why everybody ought to be behind this, including democrats.

Kevin: I refuse….to someone’s inmate for charity case and I'm putting all the disbelievers in their face. We need to fight for the right to have our children educated, so we’re sending the message, not just to our elected leadership, the mayor and council, we’re sending a message to the Federal Government. The mother of our movement, Virginia Walden Ford is going to take some parents, she’s going to walk across the street and she’s going to present over 7000 petitions who support this program.

Virginia: He certainly will look at them and I think he will suddenly think about the fact that these voices are DC residents, this are his constitute.

Kevin: We’re sending a message that every child matter and just like this, it was found on the notion that in order for a participatory democracy to work, the people must be educated, we have to make sure that our people are educated.

Female: We need to look at the bigger picture. Once everybody is gone out of the house, senate, congress, we still have to think about our future, which is our kids right now and that’s why I'm sitting here advocating the rally is over, but the cause is never going to be over.