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Map: The states where students are more likely to go to private school

Libby Nelson is Vox's policy editor, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.

The real estate company Trulia has a series of charts on private school students, who make up about 10 percent of all students enrolled in school nationally. Here's a map on where private school is more common:

Trulia private school map

The most telling chart, though, is this one. It looks for demographic characteristics that usually make students more likely to attend private school — well-off, highly educated parents — in neighborhoods with high-quality public schools and low private school enrollment rates. Basically, this chart shows how much it costs to live in a neighborhood where parents choose to send their students to public school even though they could afford other options.

The sample sizes are small, but the message is clear: a really great public school isn't cheap, either.

Trulia chart

(Trulia)