If Kentucky Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul has his way, classroom sizes will someday rise well beyond their existing ratios of 15-to-1 or 30-to-1.

“I think we should go to a million to one,” Paul said at *Vanity Fair’*s New Establishment Summit on Wednesday, during a panel conversation with Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, super-investor John Doerr, and reporter and author Bob Woodward.

Expressing disbelief that class sizes impact test scores, Paul urged educators to take advantage of new technologies that allow massive groups to learn from a single teacher. “I think extraordinary things can happen,” Paul said. "I think the government’s gotten in the way.”

The panel’s theme—what government can do to leverage technology to improve society—set the stage for plenty of libertarian theorizing.

Privatization was the order of the day. “The way to make sure that the environment is always protected is to make it profitable,” Paul said, while declining Doerr’s invitation to declare his belief that extreme climate change is a man-made phenomenon.

The group also discussed healthcare. “It’s about to explode,” Schmidt said, noting that consumers don’t currently have much choice in healthcare. Paul, who is a surgeon, agreed. “The consumer is not connected to the product,” he said.

Schmidt made the case that the tech community relies on foreign visas for talent. “Don’t take smart people and kick them out,” Schmidt said, pressing Paul on immigration reform. “We need to reach out more,” Paul acknowledged.

“What I would I would like to see is more entrepreneurs,” Doerr said.

Toward the end of the panel, the subject of voting on smartphones came up. Though no panelist had an answer why citizens can’t vote from home, Schmidt did remind the audience that his company, and Apple, just firmed up their encryption of Android and iOS smartphones. The move has drawn criticism from current and former authorities, who said the move would put Americans at risk.

Many experts disagree, and have applauded the tech companies for securing their customers’ privacy. Rand Paul put himself in the latter camp. “I’m proud of Google and Apple,” the senator said.