The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development convened a meeting last spring in Portugal to discuss the condition and future of the teaching profession. Each nation present discussed its perspective. The following is the official summary of the presentation by the Minister of Education from Sweden.
To download the full report click here.
SCHOOL CHOICE
Sweden:
In the early 1990s, Sweden moved to a school choice system in which the education system changed from one where the vast majority of students attended the public school in their catchment area to one where many students opt for a school other than their local school, and where schools that are privately run and publicly funded compete with traditional public schools.
Over the past twenty-five years of this unlimited choice system in Sweden, student performance on PISA has declined from near the OECD average to significantly below the OECD average in 2012, a steeper decline than in any other country. The variation in performance between schools also increased and there is now a larger impact of socioeconomic status on student performance than in the past.
Swedish participants described Sweden’s education system as an object lesson in how not to design a school choice system. Housing segregation leads to school segregation, and if you add to that market mechanisms and weak regulation, the result is markedly increased inequity.
The decline in achievement has fueled a national debate about how to improve the Swedish education system, from revising school choice arrangements to improve the access of disadvantaged families to information about school choices and the introduction of controlled choice schemes that supplement parental choice to ensure a more diverse distribution of students among schools. The Swedish government wants to modify its school choice system but this is politically difficult.
The Swedish government is increasing resources to poor schools but has not been able to solve its problem of teacher shortages, which affect the poorest schools the most. The poorest schools have the least experienced teachers, who are overwhelmed by the many problems they face. Teachers also lack time to work with students, and surveys of students report a lack of trustful relations with teachers.
In a way, this is kind of surprising because Sweden is one of the most unionized countries in the world, about 61% overall. I’m assuming that the teachers are highly unionized, there are no right to work provinces, no war on unions, no Janus decision, no Taft-Hartley Act. How did the teachers and their unions react to all this school privatization business? Sweden has universal health care, all kinds of benefits and social programs we can only dream about and tuition free university education.
The entire report is lengthy but worth reading. Thanks for the link, Diane.
“The decline in achievement has fueled a national debate about how to improve the Swedish education system, from revising school choice arrangements to improve the access of disadvantaged families to information about school choices and the introduction of controlled choice schemes that supplement parental choice to ensure a more diverse distribution of students among schools. The Swedish government wants to modify its school choice system but this is politically difficult.”
They’ll never be able to re-regulate now that they’ve deregulated. Now they have entrenched contractors who are never going to consent to either additional regulation or creating a public system.
Unfortunately for them, there’s no going back. They’re stuck with a privatized, unregulated system for the foreseeable future.
I am thrilled that many nations have opted to not pursue “choice” as a goal. Sweden is most definitely a cautionary tale that elite “reformers” in our country are ignoring as they continue their top down assault on public education. Our country has too many billionaires pulling political strings to impose more “choice,” for no better results and increased segregation. “Choice” as interpreted in this country is a tool to provide minority students with separate and unequal education. Social justice groups should continue to fight what is blatant discrimination underwritten by public money.
“Over the past twenty-five years of this unlimited choice system in Sweden, student performance on PISA has declined from near the OECD average to significantly below the OECD average in 2012, a steeper decline than in any other country. The variation in performance between schools also increased and there is now a larger impact of socioeconomic status on student performance than in the past.”
Privatization failed on every single goal. One would think privatization cheerleaders would heed the warning, but they won’t. They won’t even hear the warning. It’ll never penetrate the echo chamber.
PBS did a 3 part series on Sweden’s experiment:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/is-sweden-proof-that-school-choice-doesnt-improve-education
Has it been discussed anywhere in ed reform? Why not? This is the system they’re putting in here. Why wouldn’t they want to study it?
Thanks for the link. In our country privatization is a free market free for all with poor students caught in the middle of all instability and endless profiteering.
We won’t even know if privatization failed until a decade after ed reform finishes putting it in.
We’re 20 years behind Sweden. It’ll be another 20 years after that before we get regulations past the contractor’s lobbyists or a new public system to replace the systems ed reformers pitched in the trash.
This is a profound mistake. Privatization of public schools could end up as the biggest public policy error in 50 years.
Also, let’s not forget the disaster lesson to be learned from Chili because of School Choice.
How the Use of School Vouchers Has Destroyed Chile’s Public Education System – Reported 6/27/2018
“To understand the impact of making school vouchers and school privatization the law of the land, we can look to the example set by Chile. A new report co-authored by education researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in Santiago, examined that country’s universal-voucher experience. The bottom line: Chile’s voucher policy not only failed to meet its objectives, but it “also elicited several harmful outcomes for middle-class families, disadvantaged students and the teaching profession.”
What to expect:
“Families wouldn’t choose schools; they could only choose where to submit their applications. Parents might aim “for high-status schools” for their children and settle for “the ones that grant acceptance.” Schools would use “selection mechanisms” to go after the students based on their individual and family advantages or based on those who could afford a “co-pay” beyond the voucher amount.” …
“Public schools would become the default for those who lack any other economic means. In Chile, even in the poorest neighborhoods, “schools are finely stratified and socially segregated.” Those families who could bring anything else “to the table” would gain the edge. As a result, schools have become “hyper-segregated.” …
“Publicly funded teacher professional development would go out the window. In Chile, public schools are constrained by budget and private schools take advantage of teacher “deregulation,” which calls for teachers to cover the expense of their own continuing education. Also, private schools have little reason to support teacher professional learning since families wouldn’t care.” …
“Ultimately, school privatization in Chile has led to a system that thrives on “competition and exclusion.” As the report noted, in this kind of environment, “Private interests are powerful, and families are caught up in striving for social distinction and advantage,” the consequences of which are “psychologically and socially damaging.” …
“Universal vouchers and privatization solve neither the problem of quality nor the problem of equity,” the report concluded. …
Click the link for more details.
https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/06/27/how-the-use-of-school-vouchers-has-destroyed-chiles-public-education-system.aspx