Really Good Schools

Overview

“James Tooley has taken his argument about the transformative power of low-cost private education to a new and revelatory level in Really Good Schools. This is a bold and inspiring manifesto for a global revolution in education.”

Reviews

"Ten years after his pioneering book The Beautiful Tree, James Tooley has taken his argument about the transformative power of low-cost private education to a new and revelatory level in Really Good Schools. . . . This is a bold and inspiring manifesto for a global revolution in education." —Niall C. Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

"In the fascinating and provocative book, Really Good Schools, James Tooley applies his immense learning about low-cost, entirely-private schools around the world to develop a daring and truly thought-provoking proposal along those lines for the United States. . . . Check it out." —Chester E. Finn Jr., Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus, Thomas B. Fordham Institute; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education

". . . Really Good Schools provides the essential understanding of how low-cost, private schools extend access to high quality education for the poor. . . . This makes Really Good Schools utterly essential reading!" —Sir Anthony F. Seldon, Former Vice Chancellor, Buckingham University; Co-Founder, Institute for Contemporary British History

". . . James Tooley's book Really Good Schools reveals the surprising successes of low-cost private schools pioneered by conscientious entrepreneurs (including himself) in the slums of developing countries where resources are frequently scarce, and danger often lurks." —Donald A. Downs, Alexander Meiklejohn Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Law and Journalism, University of Wisconsin

"Here in Really Good Schools is perhaps the most beautiful and neglected story in the world. Unremarked and unreported, low-cost private schools have sprung up to serve some of the poorest places on Earth. . . . And he ponders how some of the principles of self-organized learning might be imported into the United States and other wealthy nations." —Daniel J. Hannan, Former Member, European Parliament

"James Tooley, rightly celebrated for his discovery and promotion of private schools serving the poor in Africa, India, and China, now in Really Good Schools argues that the logic of his findings could transform education in America and Britain." —Charles L. Glenn, Professor Emeritus, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Boston University

"Really Good Schools is a manifesto for educational freedom—the emancipation of education, as he calls it—and how we can move towards it." —Sir Robert G. W. Balchin, Chairman, Commission on Special Needs in Education; former Pro-Chancellor, Brunel University

"I strongly support the idea of expanding the affordable independent sector: variety in education is the spice of life especially in this drearily conformist age. So, more ammunition from James Tooley and from his book Really Good Schools." —Lord Robert J. A. Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy; University of Warwick

Author Biography

James Tooley is vice-chancellor and president at the University of Buckingham and formerly was director of the E. G. West Centre and professor of education policy at Newcastle University. Philanthropy Magazine has described him as "a 21st-century Indiana Jones" traveling to "the remotest regions on Earth researching something that many regard as mythical: private, parent-funded schools serving the Third World poor."