Debate: Luf and Liberal students: How can you not see the problems?
DEBATE. Despite rampant school segregation it seems The Liberals continue to be unable to understand that it was driven by the queues.
During the last decade, Sweden has had rampant school segregation. This has affected equality in school for the worse and greatly damaged confidence in the freedom of choice reforms.
In a research compilation produced by the Swedish National Agency for Education, they state that segregation has made it more difficult for schools to carry out their compensatory mission at the same time as the quality of teaching has deteriorated.
Similarly, the Crime Prevention Council has found that students who attend a socially vulnerable school, and where few have socioeconomically strong home conditions, have a greater probability of committing violent crimes.
The policy has thus given the gangs a buffet of children to recruit from. We cannot continue to have it like this.
The escalating development in our schools can to some extent be explained by residential segregation. If people live segregated, it is a natural consequence that the nearby schools also become segregated.
But since school segregation is also extensive in areas that otherwise have good integration, it suggests that there are also more decisive factors.
Since the introduction of free school choice, families have been given a greater mandate to control their own children’s schooling. Therefore, it is not particularly surprising that the freedom of choice has become an appreciated reform by both children and parents.
But the problem with freedom of choice, as it is designed today, is not that families can choose their own school – it is that freedom of choice in practice does not cover all families.
Today, parents can put their children in a queue for a school already while they are still at BB. In some cases it is not enough either, as it may even be necessary for the children to have been born early in the year. But the consequences will be even greater for those who were not even born in Sweden.
Those families cannot possibly line up and compete for a school place on the same terms as those born in Sweden.
The choice of school is thus decided in practice long before the formal election takes place.
It is no secret that several rogue school groups use this to their advantage.
By applying queues as a selection basis, they get socio-economically strong students – with good school results and minimal need for support efforts – to their schools, while in practice excluding the students whose need for support is the greatest.
In the Tidö Agreement, it has certainly been agreed to reform school choice. But even after these changes, there is a risk that several shortcomings will remain as one does not dare to remedy what fundamentally drives segregation – to apply queues as a basis for selection.
With that background, Liberal students and the Liberal youth association have submitted a motion to the Liberals’ national meeting to abolish school queues in their entirety. It is no longer possible to deny that today’s school choice is driving segregation and that it has contributed to several of the problems that we see connected to it.
We therefore call on the Liberals to live up to the stamp as a school party that they cherish so much. It is time to abolish the queues for good and expand the freedom of choice so that it includes everyone.
Hannes Fast,
national chairman Liberal students
Eric Berg,
union chairman Liberala ungdomsbundet