# A Conversation with James Tooley: The Government Should Have No Role in Education **URL:** **By** James Tooley, Barbara Galletti **Published:** July 10, 2025 --- In an exclusive interview with Libertarianism.org, James Tooley revisits his extensive research on education in the poorest countries. With the potential abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, the question of the government’s role in education has resurfaced. In an exclusive interview with Libertarianism.org, James Tooley revisits his extensive research on education in the poorest countries. His conclusion? Government is not, and has never been, necessary to educate our children. James Tooley is the vice-chancellor at the University of Buckingham. His book on how the world’s poorest people educate themselves, “The Beautiful Tree,” is available here: [https://www.cato.org/books/beautiful-tree](https://www.cato.org/books/beautiful-tree) If you want to see more videos like this one, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!