A Chester County lawyer and civil rights advocate has been laser-sharp focused on making educational equality his priority. 83-year-old Michael Churchill was a major player behind the case that led to a judge declaring Pennsylvania’s public education funding system unconstitutional, writes Kristen A. Graham for The Philadelphia Inquirer.  

It took seven years for the case to be heard and was decades in the making. On Feb. 7, when a judge ruled that there was no “rational” basis for gaps between low-income and high-income school districts in Pennsylvania.  

Despite education being his expertise, it didn’t start out that way for Churchill. In fact, he originally wanted to become a journalist. A Harvard alum, young Churchill witnessed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech while working as a reporter for The Washington Post.  

His career shifted to public service, specifically related to housing rights and gerrymandering. He then worked at the Housing and Urban Development department, and then at a law firm. He was approached by the founder of the Public Interest Law Center to become a pro-bono counsel on a housing discrimination suit. Churchill joined full-time and led the center between 1976-2006.

It was his wife who sparked his journey for education advocacy. She was a second-grade teacher for Philadelphia Public Schools. In 1991, Churchill represented community groups who wanted racially isolated schools in Philadelphia to receive more resources, instead of having to bus students to more affluent areas.  

Now at 83, education remains his passion.  

“This is my main motivation now,” Churchill said. “I’m concentrating on this because if you can’t get education right, it’s hard to get other things right. We cannot afford to have two systems.” 

Read more about the Chester County civil rights lawyer in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  

A short film about the history of the Public Interest Law Center.