On the national day of remembrance for civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who spent the last months of his life fighting poverty, KET will present a special edition of Kentucky Tonight, "The Price of Poverty," hosted by Bill Goodman and Renee Shaw. The program airs Monday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. CT / 8 ET on KET.
With 800,000 Kentuckians living in poverty, "The Price of Poverty in Kentucky" will address a few of the many questions and challenges regarding this problem. Panelists will discuss obstacles for many who live in sub-standard conditions in the state’s urban areas and challenges facing thousands struggling in the Appalachian counties of Eastern Kentucky.
The panel of experts and advocates will also discuss the root causes of poverty and why they continue, which public, government and private programs have been successful, and what kind of progress can continue to be made in terms of earnings income, education and better health outcomes for those who live in poverty every day.
"The Price of Poverty" panelists include:
- Terry Brooks, Ph.D., executive director of the Kentucky Youth Advocates
- Attica Scott, Louisville Metro councilwoman
- Eric Schansberg, an economics professor at Indiana University-Southeast and member of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Board of Scholars
- Reid Livingston, Kentucky state director for Save the Children USA
- Courtney Trent, early steps to school success coordinator for Save the Children USA
- Gerry Roll, executive director of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky
- James P. Ziliak, Ph.D., founding director of University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research and a UK Gatton Endowed Chair of Economics
- Michelle Tooley, Ph.D., religion, social ethics & public policy professor at Berea College
