The British Conservative Party is looking at Sweden as a model
for educational policy. So should the U.S.
Observes Swede Anders Hultin in the British
Spectator:
For us Swedes, it is gratifying to see David Cameron put our
free schools model at the heart of his reform agenda. He has
chosen well. In a few short years, the voucher system has
transformed education in Sweden and led to the creation of
almost a thousand new schools. But the Conservative leader has
failed to grasp a key aspect of their success. To flourish,
these schools must be allowed to make a profit.
This isn't just one of a long list of pessimistic predictions -
it's the only crucial criticism; he can ignore the rest. The
doubts I hear about school choice in England now are the same
ones I heard when I helped draft the policy as an adviser in
the Swedish education and science department in 1992. Who on
earth, we were asked, would want to set up their own school?
Surely low-income parents don't want choice - they just want
their local school to improve. Our political opponents thought
the policy such a dud they didn't even bother to attack it.
Even we had our doubts. Our proposal was fairly simple: anyone
could set up a school, and be paid the going rate (or, at the
time, a bit less) that the state-run schools were receiving.
But in our heart of hearts, we did not expect a rush of
applicants. This is a symbolic policy, I was told by a
colleague. It was in our manifesto, so we had to honour it.
Isn't it strange how little faith government places in the
people whose lives it seeks to organise? Once we put our
‘symbolic' policy into practice, and handed power from
government to communities, the effect was extraordinary. A
thousand flowers bloomed. Or, more accurately, the number of
independent schools grew from 80 to 1,100 - educating 10 per
cent of all pupils at the compulsory education age and 20 per
cent of those in upper secondary. The drive and energy came
from outside government: we in the education department just
paid the bills. This, perhaps, explains the success: it was a
grassroots-led revolution. Where communities were unhappy with
their school, they did not need to petition parliament or local
government. They could find a school provider, and set up a new
one.
The creativity of markets versus the control of
bureaucracies. It is a lesson that should be widely
applied.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the Senior Fellow in International Religious Persecution at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).
