Amazing - Sweden has run out of trash

[HiPointDem]

75. you need to do more research. the majority of 'free schools' are private, for-profit.

One of Sweden’s largest for-profit school networks plans to gain a toehold in American public schooling by managing its first charter school in New York City this September—a possible sign of the times as U.S. educators and policymakers step up their focus on global competitiveness.

The transplantation process started with a name change, from the tongue-twisting Swedish Kunskapsskolan to Innovate Manhattan Charter School. The school’s charter is held by an independent board—a nod to the city’s restriction on for-profit companies directly owning or operating public schools—but Margaret “Peg” Hoey, the president of Kunskapsskolan USA, said the staff is working to ensure the core Swedish instructional model won’t be lost in translation.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/02/09/20swedish_ep.h30.html


How Sweden Profits from For-Profit Schools

Over the past two decades, Sweden and the United States have tried to address that problem in very different ways — with very different results. In the United States, philanthropists have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to replicate what they consider to be the best “charter schools” — semi-independent government schools. Sweden’s free schools system, by contrast, has allowed both for-profit and non-profit private schools to compete for the privilege of serving students.

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/how-sweden-profits-profit-schools


Sweden’s Vouchers Are Charter Schools

Swedish kids can attend are essentially what we call “charter schools” in the United States, rather than true private schools with selective admissions. In effect, Swedish practice is like what exists in American states (Arizona, for example) with lots of charter schools and it’s quite similar to what the Obama administration (and I) are pushing. The big difference is that for-profit operators are allowed to run schools in Sweden...

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/10/05/198729/swedens-vouchers-are-charter-schools/


She said Sweden is a good example of how charter schools develop. For-profit companies are allowed to operate charter schools there and they make up a substantial proportion of the school system... The Swedish model means companies are able to pay dividends to shareholders. About 65 per cent of Swedish independent schools take this form, the report says, suggesting that precluding for-profit companies from the system would reduce new entrants.

"There is a reason why the majority of Swedish independent schools are for-profit: The idealism and drive of those running non-profit schools cannot serve as an incentive to start schools for many people otherwise perfectly capable of doing so. The simple reason is that idealism is scarce and local."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7994188/The-business-side-of-charter-schools