PORTLAND, Ore. -- New Census Bureau statistics show that children in rural areas are by far the most likely in Oregon to live in impoverished households. The federal government tracks childhood poverty rates because it targets some education funds to schools and districts that have concentrations of students whose families are in poverty. The latest Oregon figures show that a quarter to a third of the students in several districts live in families below the poverty line -- annual income of slightly more than $22,000 for a family of four. Districts falling into that category are in Woodburn, most of Harney County, the Powers school district in southwest Oregon and the Three Rivers school district around Grants Pass.
