A Swede’s School Choice Letter to the U.S.

Anissa Borchardt / March 08, 2011

“In 1993, Sweden introduced a system of school choice and vouchers inspired by the ideas of American economists Milton and Rose Friedman,” writes Odd Eiken, the executive vice president of Kunskapsskolan, an innovative network of schools in Sweden, and an architect of the Sweden voucher model, in the Washington Examiner:

Even though the system was just as controversial then as any U.S. voucher proposal, the right to choose your school and bring the funding with you is today … widely accepted by all political parties.

Even Sweden’s Social Democrat party supports the system and recently closed an internal debate on for-profit schools by deciding that there is no virtue in running schools at a loss: Schools should be judged on their academic performance, not financial. (more…)