US Edition It has proven hard for governments in many countries, including the United States, to introduce school choice by vouchers. In Sweden, however, the centre-right government that was in office between 1991 and 1994 managed to do it. The voucher system - based around Milton Friedman's original idea - led to a boom in the number of private schools, increased competition and improved the quality of education, to the extent that the opposition Social Democrats were forced to keep it after they regained power.
The school system in Sweden is formally run by local municipalities, although all schools have to follow a national plan on educational content and forms. The voucher system essentially implies that you get to take the equivalent sum that you would cost to educate in a public school to any school, including private ones. In Sweden, private schools are known as "free schools", although when the voucher system came in effect it faced strong criticism from Social Democrats, who claimed that only the rich would benefit.
This system is also not purely free-market. Private schools that receive public funding via the voucher cannot demand private fees on top. And the way the municipalities choose to implement it has been very different. Some have continued to put children in schools that are geographically close to their home, not schools they would choose. To some extent, therefore, the effects have been dependent on local conditions, such as the convictions of local politicians.
Still, the impact has been tremendous. The share of children that go to private schools quadrupled in 10 years. The same happened with high school students. The levels are still low - four and six per cent respectively - but the increase is substantial. And the levels differ a lot between regions - in Stockholm, the share is about 15 per cent, whereas in the countryside, it is close to zero.
The costs are very different between regions; three times higher in some places than others, which seems to be a matter of the degree of efficiency more than anything else. But following the creation of the voucher system and the higher degree of choice, competition among schools has increased. In time, this should decrease the large differences in costs. Several studies have shown positive effects on quality - in public schools as well - following the introduction of competition. Some public schools that have not been popular have had to decrease in size or even shut down.
There have been debates about whether the voucher system has a negative effect on segregation, ethnic and geographic, particularly in the city of Stockholm. Critics point out that all the good students in poorer suburbs choose to go to better schools, leaving their friends behind. This may be partly true, but the opposite side of the coin is that they at least got the opportunity to make a choice. Without the voucher, they would be stuck, regardless of how well they performed. So the voucher system has led to an emphasis on individuals' efforts and abilities, rather than where they live.
The Social Democrats, backed by the teacher's trade unions, were indeed critical of the voucher system, and imposed limited restrictions after they came back in power in 1994. But the fundamentals of the system are still there.
Johnny Munkhammar is program director of the Swedish think-thank Timbro