Check out the links from this piece by Joe Knippenberg at No Left Turns, which make the case that “small-scale support for private slum schools—through scholarship programs, backing for school-voucher schemes, or subsidized microfinance—might do far more good than a big aid push directed at government-run education.”
Combine that with the insights from this recent NBER paper, “The Effects of Education on Health,” which examines the “well known, large, and persistent association between education and health,” and you could reach the conclusion that private education in the developing world could do much to raise the level of global health.
Meanwhile, Oprah’s private school initiative in South Africa is under fire from some parents for being “too strict” (HT). This includes the imposition of a diet of “fruit, yoghurt and sandwiches.” It seems to me that if this diet were enforced in public schools in America it might do a great deal to increase health.