Half of black children in Oregon live in poverty, new census data shows
Lydrae Moreland, 10, quickly gets her hand up to answer a question in the Junior Achievement class at Self Enhancement Inc. where she learned about work readiness and financial planning. Most SEI students come from lower-income families but the school doesn't let that fact determine student success. About 95 percent of all students who participate in SEI programming graduate from high school, compared to less than half of all black students in Portland Public Schools.An estimated 49.3 percent of the state's 20,000 black children were poor in 2010 -- the highest among all ethnic and racial groups -- compared with 19 percent of white children, according to the bureau's American Community Survey. That means half of the state'sblack children live on less than $430 a week for a family of four, under federal guidelines, less than half the state's $48,325 annual median family income.
"It's appalling, it's horrific, it's something where I don't know once people get the information how they are able to sleep at night," said Mary
