A reader of the blog posts a comment saying that the U.S. should be open to charters and privatization because, well, what about Sweden.
| What about Sweden? Their educational system is one of the best in the world. It’s a public/private hybrid that essentially uses a voucher system. This is something the NEA has foot tooth-and-nail for years.To post that “fighting public education” is by itself a bad thing is simply not enough detail. I think it’s safe to say that monopolistic “public education” is a failure in the U.S. It’s verboten to try something new? |
The suggestion is that Sweden should be a model because it has welcomed for-profit schools and various forms of privatization.
Well, what about Sweden? I checked the PISA results and found that Sweden has scores no better than those of the U.S., in reading, mathematics, or science; in fact, Sweden’s scores are nearly identical to ours, right about average, even though Sweden does not face the demographic challenges of the U.S.
Why should Sweden be a model? It is not a high-performing nation. It does not have the challenges of demographic diversity and extreme inequality of income that we have.
I’d rather look to Finland, which actually does excel on PISA. It has consistently been at the top of the international league tables for the past decade (Sweden has not). Finland has built a strong and vibrant public school system.
Like Sweden, Finland does not have much demographic diversity, and it has very consciously sought to reduce child poverty (which is far less than our own).
What Finland has that makes it special is the ideal of equal educational opportunity. It has done a far better job of reaching that ideal than we have. That makes it a worthy model. Finland has achieved both equity and excellence. That is a good combination for us.
If we copy the Swedish model, we will make no progress. If we copy the Finnish model, we too might achieve equity and excellence.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This has become a common right-wing phrase referring to public schools that needs to be refuted: “monopolistic public education.”
How can public education be a “monopoly” when we have local control and democratically elected school boards? How come the same people decrying “monopolistic public education” are the same people advocating for “standards?” Do the people claiming that their neighborhood schools are a “monopoly” also want to break up their “monopoly” fire protection and police force? Do they want to get rid of the US military because it’s a “monopoly?”
LikeLike
Yes, they do …
Did they really never learn the distinction between sovereignty, that a Nation maintains over its essential functions, and monopoly, that describes what every corporation seeks while claiming a stake in “free” markets?
Maybe not, or maybe it’s just the usual dishonest rhetoric.
Of course, the end result is a conversion of public funds from the People’s sovereignty to one or another corporate monopoly, without all the bother of accountability and transparency they pretend to care so much about.
LikeLike
Jeff,
Interesting points that I have not thought about but did think about what you wrote when I read the paper today. The public school district, that my daughter will attend next year, was bought out with big money. . . ties to ALEC etc. So they have just dissolved the union. Even though the union attempted to compromise etc., the school board just didn’t budge and let the negotiation agreements expire.
This school district is all about choice. Working hard on getting vouchers in it, they are supporting a charter school conference here, and read an article today about the district opening a school to home school kids for one day a week so they can get a taste of what a traditional public school looks like. .
This district is all about parents having choice. . . This parent choice has really been bothering me and when I think about the business approach even more, it scares me. So we’ll get choice and take the choice that says the words we love to hear. Doesn’t mean it’s true but the advertising will be huge. As we’re looking to get our roof replaced, we don’t feel like we can trust completely any of the companies we had look at it nor our insurance company for that matter? Expect that will happen in this school choice thing too. And eventually when businesses have enough money, the customer isn’t always right and will be told to do their business elsewhere. What other horror stories can you think of all in the name of choice.
And last but not least, if we’re going to go down this choice model. . . let’s also do more of this for government. I’d love for my child to attend a school like those in Finland. I think I’d be happy with Finland’s approach to government too. So. . . think we can ask Finland to buy a little or a lot of land here so we can get rid of the government monopoly we have now?
Jeff, I’d like to write some sort of editorial around this business model choice concept and it’s problems. Can you and others give me more ideas or help me flesh out the ones I’ve given above?
LikeLike
If you’re familiar with the history of New York City, you’ll recall how well having competing private fire departments worked.
LikeLike
Vouchers sound cool until a controversial or just different religious institution decides to start their own school. Just search for “louisiana voucher muslim.”
As far as the “monopoly” is concerned, there are options. Public school, private school, charter school, home school, home school and take electives at the local school, home school with supplementary support from a local private school (which is cheaper than full-time enrollment). Yes, those parents still have to pay school taxes on their property, but the state actually saves money by them not be enrolled in the school districts.
LikeLike
Has anyone here watched “The Finland Phenomenon”? If so do you recommend it as a show to watch to help us understand what’s happening in Finland and what should be happening here?
LikeLike
Is it on YouTube or can you post a link?
LikeLike
http://www.2mminutes.com/products/pc/viewPrd.asp?idProduct=22&idcategory=24
LikeLike
TheOECD web site has videos of the high performing school systems http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/3/0,3746,en_32252351_32236130_49553155_1_1_1_1,00.html
and some great data analysis available on the first page of the site….really jumps into all the controversial issues like vouchers…amount of money spent…socioeconomic comparisons. It seems the info was there all along but priviteers and politicians broadcasted only what would fit their agenda, excluding the full message. PISA clearly
says “poverty matters”.
LikeLike
A little about Sweden and “choice”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3717744.stm
“Sweden’s school choice system was introduced in 1992. It is based on a virtual “voucher” which is equivalent in value to the average cost of educating a child in the local state school.
Parents can use this “voucher” to “buy” a place at the school of their choice. The idea is that funding follows the pupil and, in this way, the state supports the schools that are most popular with parents.
Like the Conservatives’ proposals in England, the Swedish voucher cannot be “topped up”. In other words, any private school participating in the scheme cannot charge any additional fees.
Nor can the private schools select pupils on any basis other than first-come-first-served.
Before vouchers there were virtually no private schools in Sweden. Now there are almost 800. They educate around 6% of all pupils.”
So, let’s be clear:
– You can’t spend any more per child at a Swedish school than the voucher amount, unlike elite American private schools.
– You have to take all kids who apply (no doubt there is still a ton of self-selection).
– Only 6% of the kids are educated in the schools, even though they’ve had “choice” for 20 years.
Looks like most Swedes “choose” to NOT use private schools. And does anyone really think American privates are prepared to take ALL applicants first-come-first-serve, and not charge any more than a voucher amount, even on a need-based basis?
Didn’t think so.
LikeLike
Yes, the problems of public schools in the US revolve around poverty, inequality, and racism–explanations denied, dismissed, and disregarded by the billionaire reformers and their political leaders, so it’s up to us to keep advocating this point of view…ira
LikeLike
Diane,
First, thanks for the time and effort you put into your blog. Greatly appreciated by me and many others.
I feel the need to push back a bit at the thinking here. It’s not that I’m arguing for Swedish schools per se, but I find your points (or should I say point) of comparison troubling. It seems that the only marker for comparison is PISA scores which in my mind comes nowhere near to measuring everything that I would look for in a quality school experience. This is the narrow measure that most school “reformers” use to articulate a lack of excellence in US schools, the reason we need to redouble our efforts to improve the outcomes of traditional schooling, and what allows them to label most progressive thinking around change in education “irrelevant.” To say that “we’ll make no progress” if we copy Sweden because their test scores aren’t as high as Finland’s does harm, I think, to our own ability to articulate an argument for a much more diverse and rich form of assessment of education, one that builds on a child’s ability to create and perform far beyond the limited knowledge and skills required to do well on the PISA test.
Is excellence really just wrapped up in the test? If so, I think I’ve misread your past posts and writings. If not, I think we all need to engage in and promote a more expansive definition that will appeal to parents and community and policy makers, one that leaves “reformer’s” vision of what schools should be unattractive by comparison.
Respectfully…
LikeLike
Thanks, Will, I don’t think that test scores are what matters most. I just find it bizarre that someone writes to say we should copy Sweden because Sweden is a high performer. And then I look at PISA and Sweden does no better than we do. I was invited by the writer to admire Sweden’s success because it has vouchers and for-profit schools, but I don’t know how they measure “success.” I think the test score mania is out of control.
LikeLike