This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 8th, 2013.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Low-cost private schools for the world's poor could revolutionize education across the globe,

and James Tooley, author of the Cato book The Beautiful Tree, has provided a powerful witness

to how the poorest in the world are helping themselves.

We spoke yesterday.

For people who aren't familiar with the work that you've done,

what has been your focus over the last few years

and what are you moving into now?

So the beautiful tree is really a celebration.

It's a celebration of what the poor, in some of the poorest countries of this world are doing for themselves about education.

Go to public schools, government schools and you'll find, well parents tell me,

when I was doing this research, parents told me their children are abandoned

in the public schools.

And so what do they do?

Do the acquiesce in that sort of mediocrity?

No.

They do something about it.

Entrepreneurs, civil society within these poor communities

set up private schools. These private schools are affordable to the poor and children go to these in huge numbers, perhaps 70% of poor

children are going to these private schools in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya,

India and these schools outperform the private ones at a fraction of the cost.

...