In April 2011, Law Center attorney Michael Churchill spoke before the Equity and Excellence Commission of the U.S. Department of Education on the effects unequal school funding has had in Pennsylvania, particularly in Philadelphia public schools.
Congressman Chaka Fattah also testified, as did a number of education policy experts, public education advocates, and students from Philadelphia schools.
One of three featured speakers, Churchill told the crowd, “[t]o say a public school has failed these children is to identify the wrong perpetrator – it is the legislators, who have refused to produce adequate resources for these children’s schools, who have failed the students. Frankly, I am tired of hearing that getting poor and minority children out of failing schools is the new civil rights battle when we have never delivered on the old civil right of equitable distribution of resources.”
