Mapping Drive Times to Mississippi Private Schools 

As Mississippi lawmakers consider enacting broad and even universally available educational choice programs to ensure students have access to the learning environment that meets their needs, questions about whether students would actually be able to access an alternative school are, understandably, on the rise.

Mississippi lawmakers will likely debate enacting a robust education savings account program, along with other education freedom reforms that would be available to Mississippi students. The state already has an Education Savings Account Program for students with special needs, which serves 7% of students, and two voucher programs — one for students with speech-language therapy needs and one for students with dyslexia. However, some lawmakers want to do more by enacting a more expansive ESA program, perhaps one that would be available to all students.

If the Magnolia State policymakers do expand choice, will students be able to find options outside their zip-code assigned public schools? According to new research exploring where Mississippi’s private schools are located, 55.8% of students in the state live within 10 minutes of a private school, more than 84% live within a 20-minute drive, and more than 95% of students live within 30 minutes of at least one private school.

The Mississippi Private School Drive-Time Map explores which students live closest to private schools using location data from the U.S. Department of Education, Mississippi Department of Education, and data from the state’s private school membership association lists.

But where exactly are Mississippi private schools located? Which communities have private schools, and which don’t? How quickly can families in the Magnolia State transport their children to private school options?

Click here (or on the photo) for an interactive version of the map

Here’s a quick breakdown of the Mississippi census tract data connected to the drive-time rings generated for the map:

Of Mississippi children (ages <18):
• 55.8% live within a 10-minute drive of at least one private school.
• 84.3% live within a 20-minute drive of at least one private school.
• 95.8% live within a 30-minute drive of at least one private school.
• 4.2% of Mississippi school-aged children (29,254 students) live more than 30 minutes from any private school in the state.

Household median income within each drive-time band:
• $63,086 for between 0 and 10 minutes from at least one private school.
• $63,416 for between 10 and 20 minutes from at least one private school.
• $55,559 for between 20 and 30 minutes from at least one private school.
• $54,598 for between 30 and 40 minutes from at least one private school.
• $52,369 for between 40 and 50 minutes from at least one private school.
• $59,826 for between 50 and 60 minutes from at least one private school.
• $45,234 for between 60 and 70 minutes from at least one private school.

Percentage of households within each drive-time band:
• 56.2% of households who live between 0 and 10 minutes from at least one private school.
• 27.9% of households who live between 10 and 20 minutes from at least one private school.
• 11.5% of households who live between 20 and 30 minutes from at least one private school.
• 2.8% of households who live between 30 and 40 minutes from at least one private school.
• 1.1% of households who live between 40 and 50 minutes from at least one private school.
• 0.3% of households who live between 50 and 60 minutes from at least one private school.
• <0.1% of households who live between 60 and 70 minutes from at least one private school.

Explore all the data included in The Mississippi Private School Drive-Time Map. Note, the map is best viewed on a computer.

If you are interested in a deeper exploration of the data, please reach out to Nathan Sanders at [email protected].