In the world of international development, Liberia has recently gotten attention for contracting out management of some public schools to the private sector. The Financial Times and The Economist have covered this story. That is partly due to the fact that the large American company involved, Bridge International Academies, is funded by, among others, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Predictably, Liberia's policy has aroused the ire of international teacher unions and NGOs.

This focus on Bridge is a shame. Something else is happening in Liberia – and other war-affected countries – which is much more noteworthy. I have been to Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries recently torn by civil war, as well as South Sudan, still in the throes of bloody conflict. Journeying into the slums, I quickly found what I've found in every other developing country: low-cost private school, after low-cost private school. Experts I'd spoken to before my visit told me I might find a small number of church or NGO schools, but nothing else. In fact, I found huge numbers of schools run by proprietors – "for-profit" low-cost schools.