Milton Friedman’s film series “Free to Choose” Episode on Education part 1. It was Friedman’s voucher plan that was put into practice in Sweden in 1993.
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I went to the Van Buren v. Bryant basketball game the other night at Bryant. I wore a white razorback shirt with the number 32 on it and my grandson Luke Hatcher wore a yellow shirt and sat next to me. Kevin White who is the asst pastor at North Park Baptist is sitting in front of me with the dark green hat and the green shirt. His son Drew White is trying to block a shot by the Bryant player. (Van Buren won the game.)
Drew actually is not only one of the best basketball players I have seen but he also has a scholarship to play football at OBU as a receiver. His brother is presently a receiver at Southern Arkansas University and they will be playing against one another in conference play next year.
Luke’s family just moved here from Van Buren and they were members of North Park Baptist Church which one of the most dynamic churches I have ever visited.
Across the United States, policymakers are increasingly adopting education policies that give families the power to choose their children’s schools. Nonetheless, the idea of providing school vouchers to allow children to attend private schools remains controversial. For instance, congressional leaders and the Obama Administration have tried to end a successful school voucher program for low-income children in Washington, D.C.
American policymakers on the Left and the Right may be surprised to learn that a universal school choice program has taken hold in Sweden. The Heritage Foundation interviewed Thomas Idergard, Program Director of Welfare and Reform Strategy Studies at Timbro,[1] a free-market think tank based in Stockholm.
Dan Lips: Mr. Idergard, thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. Can you please tell us the background of how Sweden’s voucher program came to be? How was it created?
Thomas Idergard: Thank you very much, Mr. Lips, for giving me the opportunity to tell you more about the Swedish model for real school choice—for all.
The Swedish school voucher program was introduced in 1992 by the then Center-Right government. First, the Social Democrats opposed the reform, but after having returned to power in 1994 they not only accepted it but also expanded the legislated compensation level of the voucher. Today there is almost a total national political consensus—with the one and only exception from the small Left (i.e., former Communist) Party—on the foundations of school choice in Sweden.
Since the 1970s, the Swedish school system had declined regarding quality and student attainment. One reason for this was the lack of choice. Only the very rich, who could afford private schools with private tuition fees on top of our very high taxes, had a right to choose. For all the rest, the school was one monolithic organization in which all students were considered to have the same needs and to learn the same way. The lack of choice created a lack of innovation regarding pedagogical concept and ways of learning adapted to different students’ needs. Public schools, run by politicians in the local branch of government (cities and municipalities), were all there was for 99 percent of all students.
The school voucher program was designed to create a market—with competition, entrepreneurship, and innovation—based on the Swedish and Scandinavian tradition of social justice and equality: All families should be able to choose between public and private schools regardless of their economic status or wealth. This equal opportunity philosophy, taken into its full potential, created an education market!
The Daily Hatch 