Response to interpellation 2024/25:135 on the market school
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the market school model and the free school system. L believes that the government is carrying out a complete renovation through investigations into ownership reviews, profit distribution limitations, and stricter sanctions 1. L argues that the state must take greater responsibility for school funding as municipalization has failed 2 and that investigations are necessary for good legislation 2. L argues that systemic errors exist and that investigations are required to ensure equal conditions, tighten sanctions, and return the school to knowledge and skills 3. V criticizes the investigations as commissioned assignments 4 and argues that market logic creates an unfair system 5 6. V believes that the system must be fundamentally changed 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Daniel Riazat has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to address school corporations that repeatedly fail in their educational mission. Daniel Riazat has also asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to address the problem regarding school corporations that use funds intended for schools for other business activities that are completely outside the school's mission.
All children and students shall receive a good start in life. Conducting education within the school system in Sweden means managing society's trust for that mission. At the same time, there are problems with the current rules for independent schools. We shall combat a lack of equality, and the government considers that unserious and unsuitable actors should not be allowed to occur within the school system.
That is why we have started a complete renovation of the Swedish independent school system. On July 6, 2023, the Government decided on supplementary directives for the Inquiry into Profit in Schools. The investigator shall, among other things, propose an expanded ownership and management review, certain profit distribution bans or other profit distribution limitations, and stricter sanctions for private and municipal operators. It is a package of various measures as a response to all the cases where children's and students' right to a good education is not met.
The investigator's mandate includes, in addition to what I just said, also among other things to consider and propose how requirements for long-term ownership can be introduced. These are requirements that mean that students' right to a coherent education is guaranteed. It is also about increased protection for students through financial guarantees, for example requirements for a bank guarantee, and about how extensive a right for students to complete parts of their education at the school they have chosen should be.
According to the Education Act, it is the head of the school (huvudman) who is responsible for ensuring that the education is carried out in accordance with applicable regulations and that the students receive the education they are entitled to. However, it can be the case that deficiencies in the school are due to the fact that behind the head of the school there is an owner who is unsuitable. The Government therefore issued a new supplementary directive to the Inquiry into Profit in Schools on September 19, 2024. The new directive focuses on ownership conditions, where the inquiry shall, among other things, propose how the Swedish Schools Inspectorate and the municipalities should be given increased opportunities to prevent unsuitable owners from controlling individual heads of schools.
Another important part of the government's reorganization of the independent school policy is the financing system. The school fee is intended to finance the students' education. Today, there are unjustified differences in how many resources different municipalities allocate to schools, and there is a clear need to change the regulations regarding how resources should be allocated. It is not reasonable that individual school providers are allocated resources for costs they do not have. Therefore, the government has appointed the Inquiry on a national school fee norm, which shall propose an entirely new system for how resources for independent schools shall be calculated.
Overall, the investigators have extensive assignments in line with the government's clear ambition to reform the Swedish independent school system.
Daniel Riazat (V)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Education for the answer. Much has been written again about Thorengruppen, or Edukatus, as they are called now. This time it has been about how the students who attended one of the schools Thorengruppen owned, Thoren Business School in Växjö, will now not be able to graduate within the three years because they have received too little instruction.
One might think that this is a story from a country that lacks an education system, but it is a story from a country that has an extreme education system. It is a country where anyone, at any time and in any way, can start a school operation and take money intended to go to children, students, and staff to instead conduct other types of activities. In this case, it is about building floorball arenas and conducting floorball activities with floorball teams.
Thoren is just one example of how this failure is allowed to continue. We know that it is not the only school group that has come under fire because money for educational activities has gone to something other than what it was intended for. For example, the school group Tellus, which is known to the Minister for Education and for which she previously worked, has been highlighted several times because, as a cost-saving measure, they have among other things withheld food for children in preschool. It is what later became known as the preschools with crispbread and water.
For far too long we have allowed different people to enrich themselves at the expense of school activities. The Minister speaks about how quality and needs must come first and that the government is taking action on the independent school system and performing a complete renovation. But then the question is why we have 17 investigations, and what I am showing here are the government's bills. For those of you who cannot see, this is a blank page. These are, therefore, the proposals that the government is putting forward right now within the independent school area.
I ask the minister to misunderstand me correctly; my only problem is not about the profits themselves. It is about what this system does to our society. It is about the segregation that is created by this independent school system. It is about the working conditions of school staff and teachers, and ultimately well-being, which are put at risk with this school system. It is about the already existing residential segregation and the economic class policy that the government pursues and which leads to people being divided. This school system leads to this being further exacerbated. It leads to us having a society where students cannot read, and that is serious not only because of the profits but for society as such.
Academedia AB, Internationella Engelska Skolan AB, Magnora AB, Demina AB, Thorengruppen AB, Magelhusen AB, Jensen Group AB, Dibber Sverige AB, Ambea AB, Jan Vikström Holding AB, Cedergrenska AB, Tisenhult-gruppen AB, Watma Group AB, Almwik AB - one might think I am talking about banking operations. But these are the ones who today own the majority of Sweden's friskolor. Then we know that something is wrong.
I still wonder: What does the Minister intend to do to change this system fundamentally?
Samuel Gonzalez Westling (V)
Madam Speaker! We have a government that, before next year's budget, has chosen to lower taxes mostly for themselves. The ministers will receive approximately 45,000 each in reduced taxes next year. They are surely very pleased with that. At the same time, they actually do not want to allocate anything to the municipalities to be able to finance activities such as the school. That makes it an incredibly large problem to provide education throughout Sweden, especially for those municipalities that are to finance it.
But we also have the other problem of the market school, where one can just start up a school and run it. One does not even need to run it particularly well. We know, for example, where students who leave the school do not have sufficient grades, or they have sufficient grades but not sufficient knowledge to be able to manage in society afterwards.
There are municipalities that still try to do something about the problems in schools, which try to compensate their municipal schools so that they can build up the students' knowledge in cases where sufficient resources are lacking. One example is Sundsvall Municipality. But when the municipality compensates the municipal school, the independent schools (friskolor) come in tens and demand to also receive compensation to a corresponding extent from the municipality.
It is not because they have had particularly much higher costs. There are cases where profits have already been paid out, which should actually mean that sufficient resources have been allocated to the education. The reason is that they want additional profits. They want to be able to pay out additional money.
Now, the Minister for Education has indeed said that the government does not think this is particularly good and that it is being investigated. But shouldn't the Minister for Education and the government reasonably, while awaiting the investigation's legislative proposal, present proposals for a temporary law to be able to prevent free schools from requesting millions of kronor in, for example, additional compensation from Sundsvall Municipality? This causes the municipality to be drained further of resources. The children in the municipality will receive a poorer education because of some greedy school owners, perhaps friends of the Minister for Education, who want to make an extra profit off the system.
Would it not be reasonable for the government to take responsibility and do something about this issue?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Just as I began with, there are currently two major investigations underway in this area. I belong to those who are sometimes impatient. It is clear that I want to make changes quickly. But one must have government investigations at the foundation.
So, there are now two major investigations, one concerning the independent school system and one concerning the national school fee norm. Both investigations affect to the highest degree both the regulatory system for the independent schools and how they are financed.
The first investigation will submit its report at the end of March. It has also received additional directives to, among other things, review who owns the schools, which is important. Here, one can draw parallels, for example, to how the banking system works. There, one can simply force owners to sell their shares if it is seen that someone obtains too large a share or is unsuitable as an owner.
There are built-in system errors in the free school system. There has been a naivety. My and the entire government's starting point is to create more equal conditions for the school system in Sweden. A school system is a national matter. It is not a matter just for individual school providers, regardless of whether they are municipal or independent. It is also not a matter just for the students who attend school today. It is a matter for Sweden as a prosperous nation.
Today it is far too divided. I belong to a party that considers it a total failure to municipalize the responsibility for the school. We have enormous differences. There is a difference of approximately 70,000 kronor between the municipality that invests the most in its school and the one that invests the least per pupil and year. Half of these 70,000 can be traced to objective factors; when it comes to the rest, we simply do not know.
I believe that the state must take a greater responsibility for the funding of schools in Sweden. However, it is important that the money for schools also goes to the schools. Therefore, the investigation into the national school funding norm is important from that perspective as well.
The grading system was mentioned. It is also a problem that we have grade inflation in Sweden. In just a couple of months, the grading inquiry will present its proposal, which, as far as I understand from what I have read - I believe Daniel Riazat has more information here than I do - will ensure that grade inflation disappears.
There is an enormous amount to do. No one would be happier than I - I really want to emphasize that - if I could get things done faster. However, it is very difficult when we have a constitution that says even the smallest detail in legislation must be preceded by an investigation. Fundamentally, it is of course good because it hopefully leads to good legislation, but sometimes it is a bit frustrating.
Daniel Riazat (V)
Madam Speaker! School Minister Lotta Edholm says that two large investigations have been commissioned. Someone who has been involved in school and education policy for a while can quite quickly identify a number of major flaws with these investigations. One flaw is that the questions have already been investigated on a number of occasions. Another is that the texts in the directives come directly from the Tidö Agreement. This means that rather than investigations, they are commissioned assignments, which creates further problems.
Vänsterpartiet also raises the issue that the state should take primary responsibility for both the financing and the management of the Swedish school system. We also believe that municipalization was a failure. The question, however, is: Now that we have a municipalized system, why does the government want to make it as difficult as possible for the municipalities to conduct school activities? Why must there be cuts in Lotta Edholm's municipalized Skolsverige? Why can't the government help ensure that we do not, while having a failed market experiment, need to make cuts because the government wants to lower taxes for millionaires and billionaires?
I have asked what measures the Council of State and the government intend to take to deal with these school corporations and other owners who neglect their educational mandate. I actually do not see the answer. The free school inquiry has already been conducted, as I said. School fee inquiries have already been conducted. Public Access Principle inquiries have already been conducted. Grade inquiries have been conducted on several occasions during the years I have sat in the Riksdag. I have myself sat in the parliamentary reference group for these inquiries.
If the Minister for Education is serious today, there is a majority in the Swedish Riksdag that wants to change today's free school system. But the answer is that in this case, the Liberals, whom the Minister for Education represents, do not want to join that majority.
Then the question is whether we can know for certain that any of these inquiries will present actual proposals from the government before the election. Or will the issue of independent schools continue to be buried in further supplementary directives and inquiries? Can we know for certain that this experiment will not continue?
In the instructions to the investigators, which for the first time during the ten years I have sat in the Riksdag do not involve the opposition parties, it states that profits are only to be limited for new free school activities. This therefore only applies to newly opened activities and that they shall not be allowed to make profits during the first years. What is the difference compared to today's system? The majority of the large school corporations have not made their profits during the first years. In what way will the system be changed?
I would like to conclude by saying that the issue is much larger for us than just profits. It is about what kind of society we want, whether we want to be a knowledge nation and a democratic society where students from different homes meet each other regardless of what background they have or what education or economic class their parents have. The independent school system has destroyed what we were once so proud of, namely that the children meet each other and can build a society together regardless of background.
Samuel Gonzalez Westling (V)
Madam Speaker! If the government, the Liberals, and School Minister Lotta Edholm had been genuinely interested in doing something about the Swedish school system and ensuring that we in Sweden have an education for our children, the future, and coming generations, they could have acted much faster and earlier.
It is incomprehensible to me that one stands here in the Riksdag's rostrum and says that there are built-in systemic errors in the school system. Well, we could have established that already 30 years ago when the free school system was introduced. Among other things, Vänsterpartiet pointed out already then that this would result in major problems for education. Now we stand here 30 years later and observe that it has become exactly as Vänsterpartiet said. There are private interests that want to earn very large sums of money for little work performed.
The Minister also says that investigations must be conducted, and I agree with that. But how can it be that one cannot resort to rapid investigations in such an urgent matter as children's education and our future? The government has, after all, acted to restrict the rights we have in society in other areas. Furthermore, it is appalling that there are rapid investigations in those areas. But in this case, where one could do something to safeguard children's education and ensure that the money we pay in taxes goes to what it is intended for, one cannot conduct any rapid investigations. It is about addressing something that the Minister himself states is a systemic error. It is incomprehensible to me.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Yes, there are systemic errors in the free school system, and I believe it is incredibly important that this is investigated thoroughly so that a proposal is obtained that works in relation to all other legislation that exists in the country. One must not rush, but the whole must be preceded by a solid investigation. And in this case, it is not only an investigation that is required, but it also concerns the national school funding norm.
The previous speaker spoke about mistakes made 30 years ago. One big mistake was the municipalization of Swedish school, and Vänsterpartiet contributed to that. If Vänsterpartiet had not agreed to it, this would not have happened 30 years ago.
We all have our share of the responsibility for the systemic errors that exist, but now they must be changed. I believe it is essential to ensure that we get more equal conditions between municipal and independent schools, but also between municipalities. There are unreasonably large differences today in how the municipalities choose to prioritize their schools. We must do something about that.
When it comes to profits, it is not at all just about making it harder to take out profits for newly started schools. The directives speak of a number of different occasions when this can occur. I believe that is important. But it is also important to review what can be done to sharpen the sanctions. Today, for example, there is no possibility to take over the management of poorly functioning independent schools. There is, however, such a possibility regarding municipal schools. However, it has only occurred on a single occasion. I mean that this must also be able to be used on independent schools in order to address the problems that exist.
In summary, we have two major investigations that directly concern the independent school system, the independent school investigation and the investigation on national school funding norms. But there are, of course, a number of other investigations that affect independent schools in the same way as they affect the municipal school. For example, we have the investigation on student health. There are incredibly large differences there both between municipal schools and between municipal and independent schools. I have already mentioned the grading investigation. That, as well as a number of other investigations, will also affect the independent school sector. So, it is not just about two investigations.
Daniel Riazat (V)
Madam Speaker! We could compare today's market school system with someone who has received severe burns where the doctor's solution is to put a few bandages on the injuries. It might perhaps help the person in question a little, psychologically, that the doctor has done something, but will it make the burns heal? No, it will not.
In the same way, Lotta Edholm knows that it is not possible to patch and repair a broken system. It is the system that needs to be changed fundamentally. Just as I and everyone else in the country know, the minister also knows that if you cooperate with parties that have a single mission - to represent interests from Swedish business, these school companies and welfare companies here in the Riksdag - you cannot change anything.
If it were not for that, it would de facto not even have been possible to have a school minister who themselves comes directly from a school group. The question is how much credibility there is behind the minister's words.
The Minister says that we have been naive and that the purpose was not for it to turn out this way. I mean that the purpose was exactly for it to turn out in this way. It was no coincidence that those who were involved in pushing through the friskole reform in the 90s later also became millionaires from the reform.
Vänsterpartiet also believes that municipal schools need to be improved, but we think that municipal schools today have to compete in an unfair system created by market logic, and that it is this which must be removed fundamentally.
Now it is up to the government, the Liberals, and Lotta Edholm to show that they want to see a different school policy. We and the opposition are ready, and the majority exists. The question is only whether the school minister also wants to change the system.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! The system must be changed fundamentally. It is not just about the friskolor, it is about our school system as a whole. It concerns, among other things, the financing and that we must get back a school to the basics where there is a focus on knowledge and skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, much of which the Swedish school has lost over quite many years. We must also get back reading in the Swedish school.
The government is working on all of this now. We have twelve major inquiries underway, and they will be presented as a string of pearls now. The first inquiry, which concerns changes to teacher education, will arrive in just a few days. An important piece of the puzzle in this, however, is the friskolor and the systemic errors that actually exist. The government is now working to change these. The financing in this regard is also important. In the directives to the inquiry on a national school funding norm, it is also stated that friskolor should not be paid for assignments that they actually do not have – as is the case today. It is completely unreasonable that, for example, bankruptcies can receive school funding retroactively. I believe that quite a few of us think that it is unreasonable. Major changes are needed to this system, just as major changes are needed to the Swedish school system as a whole.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.