Free fair housing forum will address housing segregation and correlations with low performance in schools

Louisville, Ky. – May 20, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — “The Correlation between Fair Housing and Education Achievement Gaps” is the theme for a free fair housing and education forum set for June 11 at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, 1701 West Muhammad Ali Blvd., Louisville, Ky., 40203.

The event is sponsored by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.

It will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) and focus on the academic effects of segregated housing patterns in Kentucky, a comparison of Kentucky’s housing patterns and academic achievement gaps to those found nationally, and best practices found in Kentucky and nationally to address these issues. It will examine relationships between housing patterns and educational outcomes.

The keynote speaker is law professor and demographer Prof. Myron Orfield of the University of Minnesota. He is a faculty member of the University of Minnesota, director of its Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, and a former non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has been called “the most influential social demographer in America’s burgeoning regional movement.”

For information or to make reservations (seating is limited), contact Mary Ann Taylor of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights at 502,566.9961 or email her at MaryAnn.Taylor (at) ky (dot) gov.

In 2013, Dr. Terry Holliday, Kentucky Education Commissioner, described Kentucky as having low performing schools and said this was resulting in “academic genocide.” His statement characterized a debate among Kentucky educators and education advocates. Does continued segregation in housing have a direct impact on the underachievement of African American and Latino students in schools? Questions like these will be addressed at the Fair Housing Forum.

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights is the state government authority that enforces the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 344), and, through its affiliations with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, enforces federal civil rights laws.

The Kentucky Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against people in the areas of employment, financial transactions, housing and public accommodations. Discrimination is prohibited in the aforementioned areas based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, and disability. In employment, discrimination is further prohibited on the basis of age (40-years and over) and on the basis of tobacco-smoking status. In housing, discrimination is further prohibited based on familial status, which protects people with children in the household under the age of 18-years old, and it protects women who are pregnant. It is also a violation of the law to retaliate against a person for complaining of discrimination to the commission.

For help with discrimination, contact the commission at 1.800.292.5566. For information about the commission and civil rights, visit the website at www.kchr.ky.gov

For news about civil rights and information pertaining to protected classes, visit the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Facebook and Twitter sites. Directly link to the sites from the commission website address listed above.

Contact
Victoria Stephens
Mrs. Stephens’s direct phone: 502.641.0760
For help with discrimination, contact commission headquarters: 1.800.292.5566