Response to interpellation 2023/24:759 on cuts in the country's schools

Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Madam Speaker! Aida Birinxhiku has asked me what measures I intend to take to stop the cuts in the country's schools.

All children and students shall get a good start in life. Aida Birinxhiku is completely right that the Swedish preschool and school are in a difficult situation with increased costs. Therefore, the government has taken several initiatives. The government has, in cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, added approximately 1.2 billion kronor to the school in the budget bill for 2024. Together with the proposal in the autumn budget, the sum now amounts to 1.7 billion kronor. The government has also proposed that the knowledge grant should be strengthened by 850 million kronor. The Riksdag has decided in accordance with the government's proposal, and the grant now amounts to 7.5 billion kronor.

The reinforcements will contribute to alleviating the difficult economic situation that many preschools and schools are in, but the situation also requires the municipalities to take their responsibility. To support the municipal sector, the government also reinforced the general state grants to municipalities and regions with 10 billion kronor from 2024, of which 7 billion kronor are distributed to the municipalities.

The reinforcement of the general state grants

corresponds to a quarter of the total reform space in the budget. The proportion of the state budget that goes to the school as well as the state contribution to the school measured as a share of GDP 2024 are also some of the largest contributions from the state ever. At the same time, the municipalities' resource allocation is affected by the fact that the number of children of school age is decreasing.

The government has also begun a complete renovation of the school's financing system to strengthen state governance over the distribution of resources to schools. As part of this work, the government has appointed the Inquiry on a national school funding norm for increased equality (U 2023:05), which is to propose a system for resource distribution based on a nationally binding school funding norm. Today, there are large differences in how much different municipalities invest in schools, and there is a clear need to change the regulations regarding how resources should be distributed to independent schools. Municipal and independent schools have different responsibilities, and this needs to be reflected in the resource distribution.

I also want to mention the possibility that municipalities and regions, under certain conditions, can use funds that they have reserved in a result equalization reserve. These funds can be used to equalize revenues during a weak economic climate, and it means that exceptions may be made from the Local Government Act's requirements for a balanced economy. In this context, I can also mention that Statistics Sweden's statistics show that the municipalities' preliminary results for 2023 were plus 26 billion kronor, which was stronger than expected.

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Aida Birinxhiku (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for the answer! Let me first state that the situation that the country's schools find themselves in is anything but sustainable. The cost crisis has hit and continues to hit Swedish schools hard, but despite that, the government has neither given the municipalities nor the schools the support required for them to be able to meet the worst economic crisis since the 90s. Therefore, this is a situation that the government and the Sverigedemokraterna have, to the highest degree, paved the way for.

We see the results in the cuts that schools across the country are forced to make. This also applies in my constituency, Halland. We see it in the local news and in the teachers' surveys from the trade unions, and we hear it in the conversations that we Members of Parliament have, primarily with worried teachers and parents. We see how school classes are merged, how special support is withdrawn, and how teachers, student assistants, and other important school staff disappear in the municipalities of Kungsbacka, Varberg, and Falkenberg.

Halmstad Municipality is forced into savings of 40 million kronor, equivalent to a total of 70 teaching positions. The smallest municipalities in my constituency, Hylte and Laholm, have not only been forced into school closures but also into record increases in the municipal tax.

Madam Speaker! This is what reality looks like when Swedish schools face a double cost crisis. The government fails the school twice, partly through the cuts in state support, and partly through the market school, which drains the school of resources.

Firstly: When the government's first budget was presented, the Minister for Education spoke about record investments in the school sector. But upon closer inspection, it turned out to be cuts of 2 billion SEK in fixed prices, equivalent to approximately 3,000 teaching positions. The government has neither compensated for this in the budget for 2024 nor now in the spring budget. Nor has the government, through the general state grants, covered the cost crisis in the country's municipalities. The so-called supplements that the Minister for Education mentions are far from sufficient.

Secondly: The Government continues to defend the market school and the profit-seeking that it leads to. It is quite obvious that the school is in need of more resources, but it should be equally obvious that the existing resources must be used effectively. And they are not doing that today. Instead, we have a school funding system that overcompensates independent schools and drains municipal schools. We have a system where tax money that should go to the students' education instead disappears into profits for the large independent school corporations.

Every time we Social Democrats have presented proposals in the Swedish Riksdag to reform the school voucher and deal with the marketized school system, it has been blocked by the government parties and by the Sweden Democrats. There are ready-made proposals on the government's table, but they do not want the Minister for Education to proceed with them.

Madam Speaker! Let me repeat that the situation that the country's schools are in is anything but sustainable. What will the Minister for Education and the government do to counteract the cuts that we are currently seeing in schools across the country and in Halland?

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Jan Riise (MP)

Madam Speaker! For the sake of transparency, I shall state that my constituency is the same as Aida Birinxhikus, namely Halland. Although I come from the northern part of the region, namely Kungsbacka.

Aida Birinxhiku has just described what the situation is like in the schools in Halland. This is perhaps representative not only for the region's six municipalities but for many more across the entire country. As far as Kungsbacka is concerned, I can only confirm that the problems and challenges are the same. Let me point out a few points that have been told to me.

The demographic situation is changing. There are simply fewer children of school age in Kungsbacka now than a few years ago. One can, of course, think that it is what it is and not directly a state issue, and perhaps it isn't either. But the result is fewer children in each class with practically the same costs, but thus with lower total compensation because it is still calculated per pupil. If the municipality were to come up with the idea of raising the school fee per pupil, it also applies to the private schools, which fill their classes first and can thus increase the total revenue per pupil. That was not quite the intention, I think.

What I have understood according to the information I have received means that this is 18 million less in the year 2025 for the municipal schools in Kungsbacka, compared to the 40 million that Aida previously mentioned. This means that the modest increases for wages and other costs are more or less eaten up directly. But I interpret the Minister's answer as that there is an understanding of these points and that they perhaps are even shared in the Government Offices.

Another side of the matter, Madam Speaker, is, as is well known, the friskolor (independent schools). In Kungsbacka, in addition to many others, we also have Internationella Engelska Skolan. I choose it as an example because, in several respects, it illustrates precisely what is less good about the system.

When the school was to be established, it received a centrally located plot near sports facilities, the municipality's own gymnasium and theater premises, and with access to outdoor activities and opportunities for gymnastics and the like. The schoolyard became correspondingly smaller. Furthermore, school transport was organized from all corners of the municipality, including the small area one and a half miles away where I live. This occurs at considerable costs for the municipality and has the peculiar effect that my daughter cannot travel on this bus even though she is going to the same place, that is, the municipal gymnasium which is located right next to Engelska skolan.

Madam Speaker! Today's system of school funding must be reformed. The National Audit Office has reviewed the school funding in its current form and concludes that it counteracts an equal school and needs to be changed. The current system makes it difficult to plan and allocate resources effectively.

The municipality distributes school funding to independent schools on the same grounds as to its own schools, but the municipality, as is known, has other areas of responsibility and obligations that the independent schools do not have. Taken together, this implies a significant additional cost for the municipal schools which they must, in one way or another, be compensated for.

I mean that this contributes to strengthening the picture that Aida Birinxhiku has just presented and which I stand behind.

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Jennie Nilsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I would like to thank Aida Birinxhiku for submitting this interpellation. The situation in the school is serious and problematic and deserves debate in this chamber. I would also like to thank the Minister for the response, even though it prompted me to register for the debate.

Just as Jan Riise, I begin by saying that I also come from the Halland constituency. As members of Parliament, we always follow very closely what happens in our home municipalities and our home constituencies. But it is also very clear that Halland and Halland's municipalities, when it comes to the school sector, are in no way unique, as we see across the entire country how municipalities struggle to put together an economy that allows them to give children the school they deserve.

I have two questions. The first is based on the fact that the Minister herself raises the challenges and problems that exist with the independent school system. She refers to the fact that a review of the system is now being conducted. It indicates that one is well aware that money intended to go towards students' schooling in a large extent is instead leaking out into profits for private companies. The answer also indicates that one shares the Social Democrats' view that this is a profound problem.

My first question, however, is: If one sees that money is bleeding out from an activity that is in desperate need of those funds and if one is prepared to review the situation and do something about it, why is an establishment ban not introduced? Why does one allow new schools to continue being created in a structure that does not work? It is new schools that will make it even harder to manage the situation and to get things right on something that I assume we agree is deeply concerning. Why is an establishment ban not introduced?

My second question concerns the fact that the Minister refers to an exception in the Local Government Act which implies that one could refrain from implementing savings in a situation where one cannot balance the finances now. One could balance the surplus over time.

It is correct. But that presupposes at least two things. One is that the municipality has a good economy fundamentally. The other is that it is of a temporary nature, in other words that something happens that one believes will not happen next year.

The latter prompts me to ask the Minister whether the government intends to compensate the municipalities for the cost crisis and the cost increases that now exist and are creating problems. Thus far, the budget-technical approach that the government has engaged in has been that one subtracts and adds, and in the total, it becomes less.

Furthermore, the municipalities are working on their budgets now. The decisions must be made before Midsummer. If an exception is to be made with reference to having a good economy and knowing that money will come, that decision must, therefore, come from the Minister today. Will the government secure compensation for the cost increases that have occurred? Will the decision come in time so that the municipalities do not need to implement further savings? Those are my questions to the Minister.

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Madam Speaker! Yes, the system we have today is completely unsustainable. I agree completely. When the Social Democrats municipalized the responsibility for the school, they chose a system that makes it difficult, not least for small municipalities, to actually finance the school.

The Social Democrats talk a lot about the independent school system. As I said in my first post, we have now commissioned an inquiry to review exactly those injustices that exist between municipal schools and independent schools. The idea is to separate the funding systems completely.

I also want to say that the municipalization is a very big problem. Today, there is a difference of 70,000 kronor between the municipality that invests the most in its school and the municipality that invests the least in its school. 70,000 kronor per pupil per year is a lot of money.

Of course, there are large differences between the municipalities. There are municipalities that have very high costs for, for example, school transport, and there are municipalities that have large socioeconomic challenges. But the difference of 70,000 kronor is only explained by half of those types of differences. The rest depends on how the municipalities choose to invest in their schools.

Preschool, primary school, and upper secondary school constitute a very large part of the municipality's budget. Therefore, it is clear that a municipality that must make savings must save on the school sector. It is completely unsustainable. We should ensure that the state's responsibility for school funding is increased.

It is no secret that my party, Liberalerna, would prefer to nationalize the responsibility for the school. There is no majority for this in the Swedish Riksdag. But we could possibly agree on at least greater state control than we have today.

The government and the Riksdag also make decisions regarding state subsidies to schools. We must, of course, continue to do so in the future. But it is also important to point out that this is a shared responsibility. The municipalities are today responsible for the school system in Sweden to a very large extent. The responsibility for that is actually borne by the Social Democrats.

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Aida Birinxhiku (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister!

I note that this government is quick to point to the municipalities' responsibility. And the municipalities shall, of course, take their responsibility. But the worst economic crisis since the 90s is not something they can meet on their own.

As I mentioned earlier, in Hylte municipality and Laholm municipality, people have not only been forced to close schools. Those municipalities are also the two municipalities that are raising the municipal tax the most in the entire country.

Local politicians of different political colors are sitting with savings program after savings program for the school and are trying to prioritize among the least bad options so that the budget will balance. They wonder how they can take responsibility when the government obviously does not want to take its responsibility. They cannot stand alone in these difficult times. The government must support the municipalities and the welfare of which the school is an important part.

Madam Speaker! I also note that this government is quick to point to the municipalities' priorities. At the same time, the government prioritizes tax cuts for high-income earners over necessary resources for our common welfare.

We can return to the government's first budget, where the Minister for Education spoke about record investments in the school sector. There, the government chose to prioritize almost 13 billion in tax cuts for those who earn the most, while the school received 2 billion less, in constant prices. Is that really the right prioritization in this situation? I think the government should ask itself that before starting to point fingers.

Madam Speaker! We Social Democrats have time and again shown that we prioritize differently. In our budget proposals, we have invested more in school and education. We have invested more in the general state grants to municipalities and regions. In our latest proposal for the spring budget, we came forward with double supplements to the school.

We have also submitted several proposals in the Swedish Riksdag to deal with the market school and the unfair school fee system. But the government parties and the Sweden Democrats have repeatedly voted no.

I welcome that the government finally sees the obvious shortcomings in our school voucher system. But it makes it even harder to understand why the Minister for Education is doing nothing about it. On the Minister for Education's desk are ready-made proposals to stop the waste of school resources that she can move forward with here and now. But instead, the Minister for Education chooses to wait for a new investigation and let this continue for several more years. Swedish schools cannot afford that, especially not with these economic conditions.

Madam Speaker! The government is failing the school twice over. Worst of all is that it is children and young people who have to take the hit, in Halland and in the rest of the country. I hope that the Minister for Education in this debate can provide a reassuring message to the students, teachers, and local politicians who are sounding the alarm about the development in Swedish schools. Will the government support the municipalities and the schools in the upcoming autumn budget? Can the Minister for Education give that message in this interpellation debate?

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Jan Riise (MP)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answers! Thank you, Jennie Nilsson and Aida Birinxhiku for the context!

We clearly have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure a functioning and fair allocation of funds to schools - from preschool to upper secondary school. It is a matter of using both municipal and state funds in the best way that yields the best possible results. I am convinced that it also has to do with the school as a place, as a work environment, for both teachers and other staff as well as for students. It is the time they have together that determines how it goes.

We in Miljöpartiet have high confidence in teachers' competence and experience. We want to return to a society that has high trust in the school and those who work there. The task of politics is to create conditions for a school where one can trust the students' curiosity and the teachers' competence, and which gives them the conditions and mandate to do a good job and to meet every student based on their natural desire to learn, including students who have great needs for special support.

Our task, of course, is not to micro-manage and control the educators in their daily work in the school, in the classrooms, but to provide the conditions for the school's employees to be able to use their full competence. Then Sweden can regain some of the status the country previously had with high results in international comparisons.

The sand investigation and other [data] show that Swedish children's school results depend, among other things, on parents' education level and economy. We are completely convinced that reduced inequality between people and increased equality in school is crucial. It provides the conditions to strengthen knowledge in reading, writing, and arithmetic. I envision and hope for a good development in this regard.

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Jennie Nilsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister again for the answer, which however was not much of an answer. I note that the Minister for Education in all essential matters places the responsibility on the municipalities, on the one who has had the principalship – i.e., how the regulation for the school looks – and on the Social Democrats. None of this is surprising, for that is approximately how representatives of the government usually handle criticism in this chamber.

I still want to state in this context that, given the approach linked to the state's responsibility for this, I can absolutely sympathize with the fact that the Liberals have, for a very long time, as the Minister for Education points out, wanted to see a state school. But the fact that there is no majority for that means that few parties believe that a change of ownership would solve the problem. What is interesting then is how one chooses to ensure that the state takes responsibility in some other way, within the framework of what can actually gain a majority in this chamber. Unfortunately, we see very little of that, and above all, it takes a long time.

The crisis is here and now. I am very concerned that this will become a lost parliamentary term for Sweden's and Halland's students. It will have consequences far into their lives, and it will also have consequences for our society.

I want to repeat my questions. Why are no establishment stops being introduced? When will a notification come from the Minister for Education to Sweden's municipalities regarding what they can expect in budget supplements from the government, which could then possibly mean that they do not need to make the drastic cuts that they unfortunately are planning for now?

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Madam Speaker! As I tried to say in my first contribution, the responsibility for the school's funding is shared. The State is making very large investments in the school, but it is also a responsibility of the municipalities to do this.

Jennie Nilsson says that I place all the responsibility on the municipalities. No, I actually place all the responsibility on the Socialdemokraterna, Centerpartiet and Vänsterpartiet who implemented this major change 30 years ago. It has led to us having a very unequal system for the financing of the Swedish school, in a way that makes it so there are very large differences.

We intend to address this through the investigation we have commissioned regarding a national school funding norm. It is of course true that there are large differences between the municipalities, and that should be the case, but the funding of the school must be based on precisely those differences and not on the fact that there are large differences depending on how much one is prepared to invest in the school from the political perspective in the individual municipalities.

We must also do something about the funding of the free school system, because it is unfair. We simply need to separate these two types of funding, and an inquiry has been commissioned regarding that.

I completely share Jan Riise's view on the school. I think it is important that we have high confidence in teachers and that we create the conditions required, but I am also completely convinced that for this to happen, the state must take greater responsibility than it does today. A school system is a national responsibility in most countries. It cannot be separated into 290 municipalities and an additional hundreds of independent schools. We must take more of a clear, national responsibility for these issues.

When it comes to announcements regarding upcoming investments in schools, Jennie Nilsson naturally knows that such announcements are made in the budget bill. Many municipalities also choose to set their budgets after the conditions for the coming year are known.

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Aida Birinxhiku (S)

Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Education for the debate, even though it unfortunately did not provide particularly reassuring news to students, teachers, and local politicians all around Halland.

I believe we would need to lift our gaze and see the consequences of this development. What happens to the children and young people who do not receive the support they need in school? I believe the Minister for Education knows this very well. It creates a breeding ground for exclusion, segregation, and crime.

In my constituency, Halmstad Municipality, as I mentioned earlier, has been forced into major savings in the school area. Recently, many student assistants and other important staff in the schools have had to leave their jobs. This is staff who have been crucial for catching students who are drifting and heading towards crime. Teachers, police, parents, and safety coordinators see a clear connection between that and the development of violence in Halmstad. After the latest shooting in Vallås three weeks ago, the feeling of powerlessness is stronger than it has been in a long time. I hope that the Minister for Education takes this with her into the negotiations regarding the upcoming autumn budget, even if she does not want to give any announcements on investments now.

Children and young people are paying the price for the cuts we are currently seeing in schools across the country. They risk having devastating consequences for both the individual and society as a whole.

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Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)

Madam Speaker! I completely share the view that we must invest in the school. That is why this assembly - the Riksdag - has chosen to make large investments in the school. For 2024, it concerns 1.7 billion kronor more than the previous year in investments in the school. It is also important to remember that the school in Sweden is municipalized and that the municipalities have the primary responsibility for financing. I mean that the system must be adjusted, even if it is the case that we cannot go all the way with a total nationalization of the school.

We must take our responsibility and ensure that a national school funding standard is introduced that no municipalities can fall below in the financing of the school system. But that we will continue to take our responsibility for the school's financing is crystal clear. I hope that the municipalities will also do so in the future.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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