“The solution is not less choice”

Swedish schools need reform, but reducing students’ freedom to choose is not the answer, Academedia CEO Marcus Strömberg argues in a reply published in Svenska Dagbladet’s debate section.

Strömberg agrees with researchers who have shifted attention from school ownership to the design of the school system. He says a common school-choice process and state funding for teaching could reduce segregation and strengthen equal treatment, while preserving the ability to choose a school.

He acknowledges that competition for students can create damaging incentives, including the use of grades as a competitive tool. Large differences exist between students’ final grades and their results on national tests, he writes. That gap does not by itself prove that schools use grades to attract students, but it reinforces the need for a new grading system scheduled to begin in 2028.

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The solution is not less choice.

Strömberg also argues that competition can raise quality when schools invest in attractive learning environments, offer teachers better professional development and improve teaching. He points to Academedia’s investments in vocational education as examples of programs that have attracted more students.

He says school choice itself cannot solve residential segregation, a major cause of school segregation, but a well-designed system could reduce its effects in classrooms. Academedia has long supported replacing separate waiting lists for independent schools with a common, transparent process. Strömberg says families should not need detailed knowledge of the system or place their children on a waiting list from birth to access schools.

The article ends before Strömberg completes his argument on how teaching should be financed, but he says the current system needs reform because resources depend on municipalities’ financial conditions.

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That is the kind of competition we want to see, where schools compete through quality and education.