Response to interpellations 2024/25:386 and 387 on the consequences of the establishment of free schools and the sale of municipal schools
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L is working on a complete renovation of the free school system to combat lack of equality and prevent unserious actors 1. L believes that the municipalization was a mistake and that the system is too deregulated 2. S argues that profit-driven schools drain resources and that students in municipal schools are affected when schools are closed for profitable deals 3. S believes that market forces have led to over-establishment, lost control, and increased segregation 4 5. S argues that the market school leads to larger classes, lower teacher density, and a worsened work environment 6 7. S believes that market forces sort students based on the parents' finances 6 and that profit interests must not take precedence over equal schooling 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.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Åsa Westlund has asked me what I intend to do to prevent the actions of friskolor from having negative consequences for students in municipal schools. Åsa Westlund has also asked me if I intend to take any general initiatives to prevent the operation of well-functioning municipal schools from being handed over to profit-driven actors.
All children and students shall get a good start in life. To conduct education within the school system in Sweden means to manage the society's trust for that mission. I and the government have been clear that we shall combat a lack of equality and that the government considers that unserious and unsuitable actors should not occur within the school system. Therefore, we are now working hard with a complete renovation of the Swedish independent school system.
The funding of today's school system has major flaws. Students receive different opportunities depending on where they live or which school they have chosen. There is also a clear need to change the regulations regarding how resources should be allocated to independent schools. Municipal and independent schools have different responsibilities, and this needs to be reflected in the resource distribution. The Government has therefore appointed the Inquiry on a national school funding norm for increased equality (U 2023:05) which shall propose a system for resource distribution based on a nationally binding school funding norm.
It should also not be possible to make money by reducing quality, for example by employing unqualified teachers or by not providing students with the support and teaching to which they are entitled. The investigation on profit in schools (U 2022:08) has, among other things, the mandate to propose an expanded ownership and management review, certain profit distribution prohibitions or other profit distribution limitations, and stricter sanctions.
Furthermore, the investigation is tasked with proposing how a requirement can be designed for a new application for approval when a principal completely or substantially changes owners, changes, or moves its already approved operations. The investigation shall also submit proposals implying that municipalities must obligatorily comment on an application to establish an independent school.
Overall, the investigators have extensive mandates in line with the government's clear ambition to reform the Swedish independent school system. All children deserve a good start in life.
Åsa Westlund (S)
Madam Speaker! This interpellation takes its starting point, among other things, in my home municipality and how the municipal leadership in Haninge, which consists of the Moderaterna, Liberalerna, and Kristdemokraterna with the support of the Sverigedemokraterna, wants to shut down the municipal Nakterhusskolan to let a private school group take over and make a very profitable deal at the students' expense.
Nakterhusskolan is a municipal school with approximately 400 pupils. It is very popular among pupils and staff. All pupils in grade 6 passed last year with passing grades in all subjects. The school has a high proportion of qualified teachers and low staff turnover.
During January this year, the primary school board in Haninge was suddenly called to an extra meeting. The proposed decision is that the board shall decide to be positive about closing the well-functioning Nakterhusskolan. No explanation is given as to why the majority wants to close Nakterhusskolan. No explanation is even given as to why an extra meeting has been called, despite repeated questions at the meeting itself.
In the municipal council, however, the Sverigedemokraterna representative in the speaker's chair says, and this is a quote: This decision is about correcting an old injustice, and giving Raoul Wallenbergskolan the opportunity they would have had from the beginning.
The decision is therefore not about doing something that is positive for the students, but about compensating the school group Raoul Wallenberg because they were not allowed to run the school a few years ago, which in turn was due to the School Inspectorate saying no to their application at that time.
What is truly upsetting in this story is, of course, how it affects the students. But it also really stands out how a school group seems to have been favored over other possible stakeholders. The decision is rushed through at extra meetings so close to the deadline at Skolinspektionen that other school groups, who have not made the same preparations as this specific school has, do not have a chance to apply. In this way, Raoul Wallenbergskolan avoids competition from other actors to take over the school premises when the municipality closes them down.
Parents can easily list reasons to be against the closure of Nakterhusskolan. All students at the school will lose their school placement and must make a new school choice. They do not know, therefore, which school they will attend in the future. The classes are split up. The students risk losing classmates, teachers, and leisure educators.
All staff at Nakterhusskolan will lose their jobs. Some will be redeployed to other parts of the municipality and so on. Furthermore, Raoul Wallenbergskolan is a limited company. They therefore need to make a profit, and fewer resources will consequently go to the students.
Nakterhusskolan has significantly better results and satisfaction than Raoul Wallenbergskolan, but in practice, the students are forced to choose just this school because the other schools in the surrounding area are already full.
In the midst of all this, it is also claimed that the chairman of the municipal board in Haninge has told individual parents that their children specifically will be given a place at the new school.
I mean that this type of problem will continue as long as we have profit-making schools in the country. The Minister for Education, on the other hand, wants to save profit-making schools at all costs, and therefore a special responsibility lies with her and her government to ensure that such situations cannot arise.
I want to ask two questions. The government says it is working on new, tightened rules. Will these rules be able to guarantee that nothing similar can happen again, or will it also continue to be the case that municipal schools can be closed to facilitate profitable deals for individual actors?
Can municipalities set requirements that certain students must be admitted to independent schools?
Anna Vikström (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank you for allowing me to participate in the debate and for the answer from the Minister.
This interpellation debate makes me associate it with Sollentuna, where I was the group leader in the children and youth committee for ten years. What happened there had long-term consequences for the municipality.
The bourgeois majority during my time in the committee said yes to almost all applications for new independent schools. It soon became an over-establishment, and a number – not so few – of municipal schools closed. Sollentuna's bourgeois majority also sold, with very favorable loans, two primary schools to private individuals who had formed companies. The municipality provided a loan that the buyer would repay over 15 years, where the first five years were interest-only. In a judgment in the Court of Appeal, the municipality was overturned as the court considered that the payment terms had been designed as individual targeted support to each respective buyer.
One of the schools sold by the municipality was later purchased, a few years ago, by a Norwegian school group and was then transformed – over the summer, in fact – into an international school. This happened without the Skolinspektionen's permission and without the parents being informed. The crisis was a fact: students dropped out, parents protested, and Skolinspektionen directed sharp criticism. Finally, this school operator gave up, but another school group took over. Schools should not be able to be bought and sold in this way. It is very risky, especially for the students. In this case, after the summer break, the students had to experience that all teachers spoke English.
Sollentuna and other municipalities used the term "avknoppning" (de-coupling) when operations were simply given away or sold for symbolic sums to companies, with fixtures and everything. Later, several "avknoppningar" were appealed in court, and other municipalities were convicted, among other reasons, for having sold schools cheaply or favored individuals and companies. "Avknoppningar" received a bad reputation and decreased or ceased.
In this interpellation to the Minister, it is not a sale that is relevant, but in line with previous processes, it is about a political majority ensuring that a previously municipally driven school activity transitions to being operated by a private free school owner, indirectly or directly. It is thus the same goal, but the methods are slightly different – and questionable. The question is whether it is illegal, as previous divestments turned out to be.
What I know is that the consequences of market forces in the school in the long term have shown to be that Sollentuna has more or less lost control over three different areas concerning the school. The first is the school's organization, the second is the economy, and the third is that the municipality's democratically elected politicians have great difficulties influencing school segregation. This is evident in a new report titled What happened when market forces were allowed to govern the school in Sollentuna? and which is written by Sten Svensson for Nätverket för en likvärdig skola together with Sollentunas Föräldranätverk.
Eva Lindh (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Åsa Westlund and Anna Vikström, who so clearly demonstrate the consequences of the system we have today. I also thank the Minister for the answer that has been given.
I asked to be included in the debate, not because I have more knowledge about the examples that Åsa and Anna raise, but because this is an issue that truly moves me. The reason is that I have worked in schools for many years as a school counselor and as an education politician, and I have seen the consequences of the market school that we have in Sweden today.
When I came back after having been away from the school world for a while, it was a colleague of mine who said: How long will it take for politics to understand and see the consequences that this system has for Swedish schools? I actually ask myself that too, because this is nothing new. The examples that Åsa Westlund and Anna Vikström bring up are deplorable and sad, but they are not new. We have seen them year after year.
We see that segregation and differences in knowledge are increasing in Sweden. We see it in the students who return to school after having been in an independent school and who have not received the knowledge that can be expected from a Swedish school. We see it in how money is drained via profits. But we actually also see it in the form of consequences of an independent school being established in a municipality. I have seen it when independent schools have opened and perhaps taken students from grade 5 or 6, which has halved classes. It has meant that classes have had to be merged or dramatic changes have had to be made that are in no way good for the students who remain.
The market school is therefore not good for the students, who do not receive knowledge. It is not that all independent schools are bad – some function. But many do not, because the pursuit of profit drains resources from the school. However, it also affects the students in the municipal schools because resources disappear. The conditions for running a good school disappear. Therefore, I wonder: How long will it take for this government and the Sverigedemokraterna to seriously make real changes to the system so that students once again receive the education they are actually entitled to?
The Minister responds to Åsa Westlund that a complete renovation is being undertaken. I wonder in what way the Minister means that the proposals they have would involve a complete renovation. Would the proposals mean that the profit hunt ends? Would they mean that the municipalities actually get a serious opportunity to decide on the organization themselves? The municipalities see what is possible and what provides the best conditions for a good school – a good education – for all their students.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I cannot, of course, comment on the individual cases that, among others, Åsa Westlund highlights, but I would like to make some general comments.
There are built-in flaws in the free school system today. There has been a naivety regarding the free schools. Previously, these discussions have often dealt solely with the outliers, i.e., the free schools that do not behave or that have conducted directly illegal activities, but more and more of us are coming to the realization that even the drivers themselves constitute a problem and that we must change them. That is what, among other things, the large free school inquiry is working on. It should no longer be possible to make money by reducing quality, for example by hiring unqualified teachers, reducing school books, or not giving the students the amount of teaching time they actually have a right to.
With that said, it is also important to see that we have a very deregulated school system in Sweden. The municipalization of Swedish schools was a big mistake, I believe as a liberal. We have a system that gives both independent schools and municipalities far too much freedom when it comes to the school.
I think that one should know what a school is when one steps through the school's gates. Today, there are enormous differences both regarding how much money the municipalities invest in their schools and regarding how the money is used. We do not have an equal school today, and we must change that. This means that we must regulate much more of what a school actually is. It is about the teachers' teaching time, planning time, and preparatory and follow-up work. It is about the size of classes and that there should be special support. One should not just be able to leave students in need of special support in the school, and not this for a long period of time.
Much needs to be done on this front, and a large and important piece of the puzzle is to make major changes in the free school area. But it is also about reviewing the entire funding of both the free schools and the municipal schools.
Åsa Westlund (S)
Madam Speaker! I welcome the Minister for Education's statement that it is the drivers themselves that are the problem. My follow-up question to the Minister for Education is, of course: Will the government ban profit as a driver and, for example, ban limited companies? Otherwise, one will not resolve what the Minister for Education himself says is the problem, namely the drivers.
I also had two specific questions. Does the Minister intend to take any general initiatives to prevent the operation of well-functioning municipal schools from being de facto transferred to private school groups without competition? This is well-known material. Several here have pointed out that we have had a system with divestments. The Minister for Education is well acquainted with this. She herself divested 18 preschools in the City of Stockholm, which was subsequently judged to conflict with the Local Government Act.
This is a new variant, but the decisions de facto mean exactly the same thing. Functioning municipal operations are being shut down – or in fact, given away to a private actor who can make gross profits from this, Madam Speaker. We fundamentally have a regulation in Sweden that is intended to prevent corruption and safeguard competition between companies. It is EU-law, and it is up to Sweden to comply with it.
My question is: Does the Minister intend to take initiative to prevent the operation of well-functioning municipal schools from being de facto handed over to specific private for-profit actors, as is currently happening in Haninge municipality? I understand that the Minister cannot comment on this specific case, but my question is principled. Does the Minister intend to take any measures to prevent this type of decision in the future?
I would wish for the Minister for Education to answer this question clearly so that it becomes clear also for those who lead municipalities and who believe they can do whatever they want: Can municipalities set requirements for independent schools to employ certain staff or admit certain students when they open in the municipality? Or is it something that the actors decide themselves, naturally based on the laws and regulations that apply regarding non-discrimination and so on? Can the municipality set requirements on which staff should be employed or which students should be admitted at an independent school?
I have another question. Time is passing, as several of the speakers here have pointed out, and today's students are attending school here and now. I wanted to bring up a case in Österåker, where they are struggling with a new establishment of Engelska skolan which has forced the municipal school to scale back. Special education teachers are being laid off, half-classes are disappearing, and the support for all students who need it in the municipal school is becoming increasingly worse because the municipality constantly has to pay an overcompensation to independent schools.
The Minister for Education could have stopped this from day one. Before the S-government handed over government power, the majority in this Riksdag, including the Minister for Education's party, voted no to a proposal that municipalities should be able to deduct for the additional costs they have in running schools when they replace independent schools. That proposal still exists; it is finished. The Minister for Education can present it any day, and yet she does not do so. This leads to the fact that the students who go to school here and now, including in Österåker, receive increasingly poorer support.
Madam Speaker! I want to ask the Minister for Education: Why is she doing nothing here and now regarding the situation?
Anna Vikström (S)
Madam Speaker! We should learn from previous mistakes and the long-term consequences of these. By "we" I mean primarily the government.
That is why I bring up the example of Sollentuna, which was early on. The first area of lack of control was the economy. The municipality now has 1,300 empty school places and for a long time had approximately 1,000 empty places. The economic consequences are enormous. The cost for empty places is estimated at 20 million kronor per year. At the same time, the school funding system drives larger classes, lower teacher density, less support, as Eva Lindh spoke about, and a deteriorated working environment for both students and teachers.
The lack of control over the organization is illustrated by the establishment of the Norwegian school group. Another example is that the School Inspectorate said yes to another independent school with an international orientation despite there already being five such schools in the municipality. It did not matter that the municipality actually said no in its statement this time. The opinions of the local political democracy carried little weight.
The third area of lack of control concerns the fact that the municipality's democratically elected politicians have great difficulties in influencing school segregation. Despite the fact that we have school choice, market forces effectively sort the students into different schools based on the parents' education level and economic strength. This applies to both independent and municipal schools, and this is very clear in Sollentuna.
The developments in Sollentuna should be a warning signal for all of Sweden. It is therefore very important that the questions that Åsa Westlund has asked receive answers and that measures are taken to address this.
Eva Lindh (S)
Madam Speaker! I welcome, as does Åsa Westlund, that the Minister nevertheless says that it is the drivers that are the problem.
After 30 years of the market school, we should all see the consequences. Among others, the OECD warned of the consequences of the reform even when it was implemented and wanted that requirements be set for follow-up or evaluation. But none of this was done.
This affects students here and now. It affects staff in the school here and now. It cannot be that corporate profit interests are allowed to take precedence over students' right to a good education and to an equal and fair school – a school such as we should have in Sweden.
Åsa Westlund and Anna Vikström have raised several examples, and in Östergötland we also see very clear examples. I see them clearly not only in my daily work as a school counselor and in contacts with colleagues at other schools but also as an education politician.
It is strange that many have had ideological blinkers for so long when they see that the school is deteriorating and that schools are forced to cut back on resources and staff because of the market school.
I wonder, just like Åsa Westlund: Until the full renovation is complete, in what way will you facilitate the removal of the worst excesses of the market school?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! We are now acting to remove the unhealthy drivers in the Swedish school system. Among other things, a profit ban will be introduced not only for new schools and schools with deficiencies but also for all those schools that wish to participate in state grants to improve the quality of the school. Furthermore, the school funding shall not go to anything other than education. This is obviously important, but it is only part of the whole.
The second part concerns the financing, where a problem today is that independent schools are paid for tasks they do not actually have. We must also do something about this, and therefore the investigation into a national school funding norm is important. It is also important for all students who attend municipal schools in municipalities that do not invest in schools. The fact that there is a difference of 70,000 SEK per pupil per year between the municipality that invests the most and the municipality that invests the least is not decent. We must do something about this.
That is why the government is also working to re-regulate Swedish schools. We have, for example, ensured that students shall have a right to textbooks. That investigation was carried out under the Social Democratic government, but the same government did absolutely nothing to realize the investigation's proposals. We also ensure that Sweden gets staffed school libraries, and we invest in textbooks, more qualified special education teachers, smaller teaching groups, and school social teams. All of this is a way to re-regulate Swedish schools because some municipalities have actually failed.
I am the first to say that we must also do something about the independent school system and the deviations that exist. Åsa Westlund asked a question about teachers that I did not quite understand, but we can return to that. When it comes to students, there is legislation stating that independent schools can either have a school choice system or the proximity principle. I assume that all independent schools in Sweden utilize these principles and follow the legislation in this area, because it is incredibly important.
Åsa Westlund (S)
Madam Speaker! I note the answer, which I interpret as a no. The Government will not address the drivers in the profit-making companies that run schools, which the Government also claims leads to negative consequences, but instead, it will continue to allow profit as a driver and, for example, will not ban limited companies in the future.
The question that the Minister for Education had difficulty perceiving concerned whether a municipality can decide that exactly those students who attend a municipal school that the municipality wants to close shall be given a place if it opens a new private school, regardless of where these students live or which queues they are in. I interpret the Minister for Education as saying that this is not possible, but that it is the rules in today's legislation regarding which students shall be admitted that apply, not what the chairman of the municipal executive board in Haninge states.
I also received no answer as to what measures the Minister for Education intends to take to prevent the type of takeover that only benefits individual interests and not the students from being able to occur in the future. I regret this because I believe it is a task for Sweden's government to ensure that the rules based on EU legislation on anti-corruption and competition are followed. I hope that the Minister for Education takes this further and considers once more whether she can do something to prevent these types of situations, also so that students are not affected in the way that is currently happening in Haninge.
I also note that the students who started school on the same day the Minister for Education took office will be in the fifth or sixth grade when the Minister for Education's tightening of the rules for the friskolor comes into force – this despite the fact that she has had the opportunity to do something about this since day one.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! What we are doing now is a complete renovation of the Swedish independent school system, both through the inquiry into the independent school and through the inquiry into the national school funding norm. The basis establishes how this shall proceed. It must be investigated, referred, law review referrals and a government bill must be written, and then the Riksdag must vote. It takes some time, and I am the first to regret that it is so.
It is also obviously about regulating Swedish school more. I take the question with me, but in Sweden we have municipal self-government. The Social Democrats are responsible for the school once being municipalized. My party was against it, and we still think that the school should be state-run, just as it is in many other countries. We do not have a majority for that, even though I believe quite a few even within the opposition think that we need to regulate Swedish school significantly more.
Next week I will receive an investigation on new curricula, and I have just received an investigation on a new grading system, which in practice makes today's grade inflation impossible. Grade inflation is also a major deviation, and it exists in both municipal and independent schools.
I am convinced that re-regulation of Swedish school is the right way to go so that one knows what a school is when one steps through the gates.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.