(cont. from § 13) Response to interpellation 2025/26:53 on gains in welfare
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L proposes a complete renovation of the free school system with stricter rules, profit caps, and sharper supervision to ensure that children's knowledge takes precedence over shareholders' interests 1 2 3. L argues that the government is making historical investments in schools to improve the situation and that money for books and libraries should go to what they are intended for 2 3. S considers that the fundamental problem remains as long as profits are accepted, as market logic leads to poorer resources for the students 4 5. S wants a profit ban and argues that the school is not a market where students are customers 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! I want to resume the discussion on schools and the situation in our free school system as we began it about an hour ago. There is something inherently wrong with the free school system as a whole. There has been a naivety regarding free schools. Previously, the discussions have mostly been about clearing out outliers, but now more and more people realize that we need to change the drivers and incentive structures completely.
Just as the member has pointed out, it is a problem that the starting point has been that one should make money on precisely quality and knowledge. We are, as said, doing a complete renovation of the friskola system. It is a system that is to become significantly stricter in its rules. One should not have profit withdrawals when one, for example, receives state grants for staffed school libraries or books. We are also creating more tools for supervisory authorities to be able to pin down the unserious actors. That is how we act to overhaul a friskola system that has existed for over 30 years and where no changes have occurred.
I look forward to being able to later submit a proposal to the Riksdag and that there is a large majority that will hopefully stand behind that proposal.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! Just as the Minister for Education mentioned, it is special to come back and have a debate when one has had a break for over an hour.
I would like to thank the Minister for the answer, because I still feel that there are some positive points in the answer. One wants to review and sharpen the system, and unserious actors have no business within the school system. That is clearly right. I do not oppose that. But I still believe that the fundamental problem is not addressed as long as we accept that profits are to be made.
The case in Hässleholm is just one of many. It is good that the government wants to stop unserious actors and introduce clearer systems. However, it is not only negligence and unserious actors in this market that create problems.
This is a consequence of a system that puts profit before welfare. We see it in elderly care, we see it in healthcare, we see it in schools, we see it in LSS and so on. And when it comes to schools, it is our children and young people who pay the price.
I sit today in the Committee on Justice, and there, one of my greatest heart issues is undoubtedly that we must break the new recruitment. In this, the school becomes important, because when one has this problem with profit extraction, the students get fewer adults around them. Teachers get even larger groups. There is a lack of special educators, there is poorer support from student health teams, and there are fewer opportunities for safe adults to see and hear our children.
Madam Speaker! During the autumn, other cases have also gained attention – not just this one in Hässleholm, which is a very local example. There are testimonies about how seven children have to share a banana and about how schools are cutting back on butter or trying to stretch the food to achieve maximum profit.
This shows that it is not about individual mistakes or unserious actors. This is what happens when market logic is allowed to govern welfare: children's meals become a cost item, while the owners' dividends become a right.
As long as the pursuit of profit is allowed to continue within the school system, we will see exactly this pattern – that the children get less and the companies get more. The governing parties often respond that they are safeguarding freedom of choice, that these actors are important, and that profits must therefore be allowed in certain cases. But the question is: freedom of choice for whom – the owners or the children? True freedom must surely be about every child receiving the education they have a right to and need. But that requires that the resources actually go to the operations, not to profits.
Despite the positive input I nevertheless hear from the Minister and the Government, namely that they are prepared to review the issue and present proposals, I want to ask: In addition to the measures that are now being presented, is a ban on profits being prepared within the Government Offices if the measures are not considered sufficient or do not have the desired effect?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! I am pleased that several here in the chamber want to discuss and debate the school issue. I would have wished that everyone here engaged in it, as it concerns the most important part of our society. School is the most important sector when it comes to giving all children the opportunity for a good start in life.
That is exactly why this government is making historical investments in schools. Never in modern times have so much money been allocated to Swedish schools. It is about ensuring that teachers do not enter the classrooms with their hearts in their mouths and about ensuring that the rowdiness is removed. The students who fight and cause trouble shall leave the classroom. We ensure that there are textbooks in all subjects and that primary school is mobile-free. We are also making large investments in the preschool area.
We do all this with the conviction that there is nothing more important than putting the school first. I am glad that the government shows this very clearly.
As mentioned initially, we have received an investigation which is currently being prepared, and we will return to the Riksdag with a proposal on how we should reform the preschool system. The investigation contains, among other things, proposals that shall ensure that those who own and operate companies within the preschool and school sector have a long-term commitment and that the main operator, regardless of who it is, provides an education of such quality that children and pupils receive equal opportunities to achieve the goals of the education.
In the investigation, they also raise, for example, how school fees and state grants should be handled. In this budget, as in the recent budgets from the government, we have allocated large resources for the purchase of books and staffed school libraries. For me, it is a self-evident matter that those funds should go to what they are intended for.
The investigation that we have received concerns many different parts of what can make it possible for us to remove those deviations and scandals in the independent school system that you mention, Anna Wallentheim. I am pleased that the government, thanks to the Liberals, will present a proposal in this area. We will present a bill concerning how we believe we can best make changes in the independent school system so that the children's knowledge and the children's interests come before the shareholders' interests.
Anna Wallentheim (S)
Madam Speaker! For those listening: One should always react a bit extra when hearing about historical investments. I want to urge the government to listen to the country's municipalities and teachers, because these are not historical investments that will make the big difference that people would like to talk about. The fact is that far too many schools today have to reduce their number of teachers, have to reduce their activities, and cannot build up the safe school environments they desire because the investments are unfortunately eaten up by cost increases.
We often speak about the equality of schools, but in my opinion, it cannot be achieved if we allow money that should go towards children's education to instead go towards profit distribution. We must choose a path. Either we choose a school system where tax revenues actually go to the students, or we choose a market where private companies are allowed to maximize their profits.
For me and my party, the Social Democrats, the choice is obvious: Schools should not be governed by the interests of shareholders but by the needs of the children. When a free school receives millions in compensation for children who are not even there, while municipalities struggle to make the resources suffice, we have a fundamental problem.
We Social Democrats are clear. We have presented proposals both in government – which were voted down by the chamber – and in opposition that a profit ban was needed within, for example, preschool. It is high time that the government and the Sweden Democrats stop defending a system where one lets tax money drain away and instead start safeguarding every child's right to a secure and equal education.
School is not a market. Our students are not customers. Their future can never be a business idea.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! It matters who sits in the Ministry of Education. It matters both for which reforms are presented and for whether one gets their reforms through or not.
We now continue the work with the complete renovation of the free school system. The system shall have significantly stricter rules, profit caps, and more and sharper tools for supervisory authorities. We will present a proposal that will win a majority in Sweden's Riksdag. I am glad that every day I go to the Ministry of Education and show that we put the school first.
It is probably no secret to either the members or the Social Democrats that I would like to see the school be state-run. Until it is, I will continue to prioritize the school through historical investments. My hope is that the members in this chamber ensure that their own local politicians do not cut back on the school when the state pumps out money and carries out major reforms. It is about teachers being able to be teachers, about students and children having the opportunity and time to both catch up and receive the right support, and about us turning around both the literacy crisis and the safety crisis in Sweden.
We put school first. We do that every day, and we will continue to do so.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.