According to the Southern Education Foundation, white students are overrepresented in private schools compared to the overall school-age population. This is not surprising. Given that private schools charge tuition, one would think students from wealthier families are more likely to attend. White families have a higher median income than the nationwide average (although Asian-Americans have the highest), while African-Americans have the lowest.

In Mississippi, for example, white students are roughly half of the school-aged population, but 87 percent of private school students there are white. That 36-point gap is the largest in the nation. Nationwide, the gap averages 15 percentage points.