Response to interpellation 2025/26:123 on limited companies in schools
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns whether limited companies should be prohibited from running schools and how the profit motive affects the school. L argues that there is an inherent flaw in the free school system and that the government is working towards a complete renovation where driving forces and incentive structures are fundamentally changed 1. L wants to tighten the conditions to remove unserious actors and ensure that tax money goes towards education 2. L proposes profit caps and prohibitions on value transfers where problems exist 3 4. S argues that the profit motive is a cancer that leads to segregation and poorer quality 5. S believes that L does not plan to ban limited companies or stop the profit entirely 6 7.
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)
Mr. Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me how and when I intend to act to prohibit limited companies from running schools in Sweden.
The Government considers that there is an inherent flaw in the free school system as a whole, and we are therefore working hard to carry out a complete renovation of the system. The drivers and incentive structures therefore need to be fundamentally changed.
The investigation on profit in schools has, in its sub-report Sharpened conditions for the independent school sector (SOU 2025:37), submitted proposals on how requirements for independent preschools and schools can be tightened in order to remove the unserious actors.
The proposals have been referred and are now being prepared in the Government Offices. In the budget bill for 2026 (2025/26:1), the Government has proposed that 38.5 million kronor should be allocated for 2026 so that the proposals can be implemented.
The government's policy aims to ensure that those who run schools and preschools have a long-term and serious commitment to providing a high-quality education, so that all children and students receive the education they are entitled to.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Education, for the opportunity to debate such a super-important issue on a completely ordinary Monday in December!
I asked in my interpellation how and when the Minister intends to act to prohibit limited companies from running schools in Sweden. The Minister gave a rather long answer. I will summarize it for her: not at all and never. That was what she answered just now.
I can only regret that answer, because I actually agree with what the minister has said in the media. The profit interest is like a cancer in the Swedish school system. The profit interest leads to segregation, to lower teacher density, to a lower proportion of qualified teachers, to larger teaching groups, to poorer access to student health services, school libraries, laboratory rooms, sports halls and nutritious school meals and to poorer knowledge but higher grades.
The profit interest is truly a scourge that must be removed from the Swedish school system. Therefore, I can only regret that the minister today answers: not at all and never.
It was against that background that I just gave as we, when we sat in government, appointed the profit ban inquiry. A few months after that inquiry was appointed, the Tidö Agreement was signed. And in the Tidö Agreement, it is clearly stipulated that the profit in friskolor shall remain. Some changes are proposed – limitations and stops on profit for new establishments – but the profit shall remain as an incentive to run a school in Sweden. It is stipulated very clearly in the Tidö Agreement.
Some half-year after this, the assignment to investigate how a profit ban could be constructed was removed from the profit ban investigation. Then, the partial report that the minister referred to in his answer was submitted.
In the newspaper Vi Lärare, the minister declared that Tidögänget were now in agreement on profit caps in the independent school sector, and she promised to return with more reforms.
Then one became happy when she said in October that profit caps shall be introduced. She said that in Expressen in October. And one shall forbid limited companies from running schools. But one becomes a bit surprised when one reads the addition about how it shall be implemented. It shall be investigated. Then the Liberals have, so to speak, dragged this full circle or all the way around, to use the Swedish term. They have entered with a school minister who came directly from the independent school sector, abolished an ongoing investigation on how profits shall be forbidden, and then stated that profits must be forbidden and that it shall be investigated. It has gone all the way around.
Today, the minister answers that she does not intend to stop the profits. How is that? Does the Education Minister want to stop the profits in the free school sector or not?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! It is exciting when a Social Democratic member is going to try to summarize what I said. The summary was that we are doing nothing when what I said in my answer was: We have a proposal that has been out for consultation and which is now being prepared in the Government Offices. I have, from day one as Minister for Education, been clear that we will present a proposal on the floor of the Riksdag before the end of the mandate period.
I can understand that it can be very frustrating for a Social Democratic Member of Parliament that a bourgeois government will present proposals to change the free school system. I understand the frustration, because one had eight years to try to secure a majority in the Swedish Riksdag to achieve such a change. But one did not succeed with that. It is frustrating when Liberals and other bourgeois parties present such proposals.
We can share the frustration that it is going too slowly, but we have processes built into democracy. We need to refer proposals, and we need to prepare proposals. It is not strange.
We in this government have been clear that we will ensure that there is a complete renovation of the independent school system. We have also been clear that we want stricter requirements for independent school actors. It is simple. We do this because we see the same problems that Member Sköld describes here regarding grade inflation, fewer qualified teachers, and larger classes. In preschool, we have seen that it is also about fewer qualified preschool teachers. One has less time with their teachers and less instruction.
These are problems we have seen, and I am glad that we share the same view on them. But the difference is whether one actually puts something on the table, and that is what we will do before the end of the mandate period.
We mean that more control is needed. It is necessary to ensure that public funds – our tax money from hard-working people – go towards financing the education of children and students, nothing else. Unserious actors should not appear in the school system.
I say it again to summarize: We will place a proposition on the Riksdag's table before the end of the mandate period. The members do not need to be worried about this.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Stop the presses! The Liberals have a proposal that will land on the Riksdag's table before the mandate period is over. But the question is how the minister intends to act to prohibit limited companies from running schools in Sweden. Does Simona Mohamsson have such a proposal to lay on the Riksdag's table? If so: Stop the presses! This is news.
The proposal that the government is preparing concerns a profit limitation. It means that in the case of quality deficiencies – honestly: repeated orders from the inspection – a transfer of value as a limited company in the school can be prohibited. It means that in the case of new establishments of schools, there will be a prohibition against the transfer of value. It does not mean: Stop the profits! It does not mean: Remove the profit interest! It does not mean: Ban limited companies! It is not, like, such a proposal that Tidögänget agrees on. It is not such a proposal that Simona Mohamsson will lay on the floor of the Riksdag. If she were to do so, it would be news worth stopping the presses for.
Is this what Simona Mohamsson means? Is there a proposal to ban limited companies or a proposal to stop the profits, which we will have to take a stand on before the mandate period is over?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Now I am going to be tedious. But according to the government, just as it is being raised here in the debate, there is a built-in flaw in the independent school system we have today – as a whole. There are drivers and incentive structures that need to be completely changed in order to tighten the requirements on independent schools.
The investigation on profits in schools has submitted a number of different proposals to tighten the conditions for the independent school sector. When it concerns the question of an establishment ban, for example, such a question could be raised. It is also clear in the investigation how we should ensure that we deal with the unserious actors. It must be done in an orderly manner and implemented in a way that is feasible.
We mean that this is the best way to go towards that goal. It means that the possibility of profit withdrawals in certain situations is removed when those withdrawals are a problem. There are therefore parts in what is on the table where it is very clear that there are limitations on the profit.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! I want to urge Simona Mohamsson to only answer the question: How and when does she intend to act to prohibit limited companies from running schools in Sweden? The proposal that Simona Mohamsson described now does not involve a prohibition for limited companies to run schools in Sweden.
When will the investigation that follows the one stopped by Simona Mohamsson's representative be appointed? Will this investigation be appointed during the current parliamentary term? Will we get a finished proposal during the parliamentary term on banning limited companies? I thought that was what Simona Mohamsson said in her previous post.
Will there be a proposal to stop the profit distribution entirely? No, I find it very difficult to see that, because the Tidö Agreement says that the profits in friskolor shall remain.
Simona Mohamsson can therefore say whatever she wants to Expressen. It still becomes embarrassingly awkward when she has to stand here as minister – the one who has the ultimate responsibility for implementing the policy in the education area – and be unable to implement what she herself says she wants to.
I think Simona Mohamsson should answer the question: How and when does she intend to act to prohibit limited companies from running schools in Sweden? An answer could be "after the election, together with the Social Democrats" – but with the friends that Simona Mohamsson now has in this government, it will never happen.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! The purpose of the changes and reforms we are implementing in Swedish schools is that it shall no longer be possible to make money by reducing quality by, for example, hiring unqualified teachers, reducing the number of school books, or not providing students with the amount of teaching time they are entitled to.
The proposals that the investigation has produced include, among other things, profit transfer prohibitions and other profit limitations in schools – and we can call that a profit stop – where there are problems and where they need to be addressed. This is a response to the profit-driven activities that have come at the expense of students and a good education.
Now we continue the work with a complete renovation of the friskola system – the first in over 30 years. The system will become significantly stricter, and we have a profit cap and more and sharper tools for supervisory authorities. Unserious actors who act inappropriately shall not be able to occur in the school system. This is something we are incredibly clear about in this government. This is something that the Social Democrats, over eight years, did not manage to gather a majority for.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.