Publically Funded Private Schools In Sweden And Educational Performance

Sweden has a reputation as socialist state that is not very accurate.  There are lots of politicians in Sweden who are similar to conservatives in the US.  This article describes the publically funded private school program that was implemented in Sweden.  There have been predictable problems with the system, and Sweden's performance on standardized tests has eroded since the experiment.  Other factors may have contributed to Sweden's poor performance but it is very clear that it has not improved the performance of the education system.  The conservative government in Britain is promoting a similar program.  The faulty assumption in these programs is that the profit system and competition between schools will improve performance.  Schools must model private corporations in order to be successful.  Curiously, many of the conservative advocates for this model attended private schools that are not modeled after profit driven corporations.  Their motivation may have more to do with the funneling of tax dollars to private enterprises than it has with the improvement of education.