How Poverty Affects School Performance in Kentucky

All the fake reforms designed to divert tax dollars for public education into the pockets of corporate billionaires won't do a goddamn thing to improve public education because the only thing that will improve public education is eliminating poverty.

As part of a continuing series on poverty in Kentucky, Bill Goodman and Renee Shaw co-host a special edition of Education Matters this Monday, Nov. 18 at 8/7 p.m. on KET that examines the impact of poverty on school performance.

Watch clips from program now, which includes visits to May Valley Elementary and John M. Stumbo Elementary, both in Floyd County, and Fern Creek Traditional High School and the  Neighborhood House, both in Louisville.

Bill leads a discussion focused on economic, educational and social policies that can lead to academic success or failure among poor, at-risk students. Panelists include:

• Kentucky commissioner of education Terry Holliday
• Associate professor Roger Cleveland from EKU’s department of educational leadership and policy studies in the College of Education
• Eugenia Toma, Wendell H. Ford Professor of Public Policy at UK

Next, Renee leads a discussion of ways that schools, families and communities can counter poverty’s effects with:

• Superintendent Henry Webb of Floyd County Schools
• Executive director Dreama Gentry of Partners for Education at Berea College
• Associate professor Roger Cleveland from EKU’s department of educational leadership and policy studies in the College of Education

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