Profit is the key to success in ‘Swedish schools’

30 September 2009

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Anders Hultin, an architect of the Swedish government’s voucher system, says the Tories’ plan to emulate it will fail unless they encourage a new breed of education entrepreneurs

If Carlsson School was run by a profit-making organisation, its natural response to the waiting list would be to expand, not become more selective. Nor would it show off about the length of its waiting list. Instead, Carlsson School would be not one school, it would be an entire group of Carlsson Schools. That is how all successful businesses work. It is how Kunskapsskolan, the school chain which I founded after I left government, works. Profit-seeking schools respond to greater demand with extra supply: this is in the best interests of children, parents and society.

The Conservatives could, of course, keep their ‘Swedish schools’ profit-free and rely on groups like Carlsson School to roll out their agenda. The advantage of a no-profit policy would buy a little piece of political protection from their ideological enemies. But is it really their ambition to create a small number of very good schools with long waiting lists? Such schools may be free to the users but, like the best state schools in England today, they would be exclusive, luxury destinations for a few privileged people. Is that really the education revolution Cameron has planned?

Sometimes I am asked if the Swedish system would work in England. I have lived here for some years now, and can think of no country better suited to it. Reading the newspapers, I am stunned at the lengths parents go to in order to place their child in a good school — or, at the very least, save them from bad ones. There are stories about parents who send their child to live with relatives to get into a better catchment area; stories about councils spying on parents who they suspect have given a false address to get onto the waiting list.