Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
My understanding is that Sweden's system has been a mixed bag at best. The idea initially was that there'd be more individual locally run schools, sort of a cottage industry for education, but it ended up being a bunch of equity firms and huge corporations running many of the private schools in the country.
The idea of increased efficiency hasn't really been borne out either, especially when private schools have to devote portions of their government funding to things like advertising and profits rather than actually putting the money into the product. One of the effects is that teacher salaries have dropped and it has gotten where student demand for teaching programs has sunk to the point that they'll basically take anyone who applies.
http://www.economist.com/news/europe...wedens-schools |
That article mentions that there is a growing gap between schools and the top students group together in similar schools. It doesnt state if these top schools are for profit or public. The issue of teachers wages is interesting. The public system in Sweden is still the largest single employer of teachers so it should be setting the prevailing wage for the industry. This in turn should drive the best teachers to the public system and the private system should atrophy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...0JK32620131210
This is also an interesting article where it appears poor regulation of both teachers and schools is partially to blame. About 25% of students go to these private schools there.
Another thing to note is there is no public or political will to get rid of the private choice based system.