Saturday, January 29, 2011

School Choice: USA (0) vs. Sweden (1)

1. USA: Convict an Akron, Ohio mother of a felony and sentence her to 10 days in jail for illegally sending her children to a school in a better school district.   

2.  Sweden:  "In 1993, Sweden introduced a system of school choice and vouchers, inspired by the ideas of American economists Milton and Rose Friedman. Even though the system was just as controversial then as any U.S. voucher proposal, the right to chose your school and bring the funding with you is today considered a natural right for families and is widely accepted by all political parties.

As American state legislatures begin to convene this winter and again consider education reform, they should empower families and create conditions for entrepreneurship. And as school choice gains popularity among parents and taxpayers, particularly as this is National School Choice Week in the U.S., vouchers should absolutely be on the agenda."

~ From the article "Sweden’s School Voucher System is a Model for America" by Odd Eiken, who was State Secretary of Schools in Sweden 1991-94 and helped develop the nation’s voucher reform. 

HT: Che is Dead

3 Comments:

At 1/29/2011 5:35 PM, Blogger morganovich said...

the Scandinavians have been pioneers in education reform.

the fins went from having some of the worst schools in europe to having some of the best in just a few years by eliminating the national curriculum and simultaneously empowering principals to create there own curriculum and teach as they saw fit and then holding them responsible for the results and firing underperformers.

 
At 1/29/2011 5:57 PM, Blogger KauaiMark said...

We need the same here...

 
At 1/31/2011 12:54 PM, Blogger Eric H said...

Not gonna happen. We are implementing national curriculum (and calling it "state-led"). See Common Core State Standards.

 

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