I like James Tooley and I don’t even know him. But, thanks to Clive Crook’s March article in The Atlantic, “The Ten-Cent Solution,” I know of him. And his research.Crook says that more of us haven’t heard of Tooley because “his work is something of an embarrassment to the official aid and development industry.” Years ago, James Tooley, a British professor of education policy, stumbled on private schools operating in India’s poorest slums. These schools were for profit, with a teacher or teachers charging students the equivalent of less than 10 cents a day. And they were doing a better job educating kids than were much more expensive to run public schools.Tooley looked further and found similar schools tucked away in the poorest parts of India and also in China, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.But Tooley discovered something else, too: little interest from the international aid community.Crook reports: “In many poor countries, teaching jobs are viewed as sinecures, and many teachers are disinclined to show up for work at all. They do tend to organize, however. Their salaries add up, and public schools in most developing countries make heavy demands on the public purse.”Now Tooley, who knows the value of 10 cents, has secured $100 million to help these private schools serving the poor. As Crook writes: “Development professionals need not be concerned, however. The money is from a private foundation. It won’t waste any country’s aid budget.”This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.