Virtually every child in America goes to school. Approximately 9% of these children attend a private school. These are schools that are not bound by state regulations and are privately funded, usually by charging tuition. They are generally considered better than their public counterparts: a Gallup poll found that in 2017, 71% of its respondents felt that independent private schools and 63% felt that parochial schools (basically religious private schools) do an excellent or good job educating children, compared with 44% for public schools.