James Tooley: How the World’s Poor Get a Good Education from Markets (podcast)

Published April 9, 2013

About a decade ago, James Tooley wandered out into a foreign slum and encountered a network of inexpensive private schools on every few street corners. The professor of education policy at Newcastle University and his team went back to study this system of education, and found that private schools serve the world’s poor far better than local government schools, and at a far lower price.

Tooley later wrote the acclaimed book The Beautiful Tree about his experiences and research. Here, Tooley talks about his research, why education is not distorted by a profit motive, and why governments provide the poor worse services than they can get for themselves through free markets. 

For more information on Tooley’s research please visit the E.G. West Centre.

Image by José Antonio Morcillo Valenciano.