Fristående skolor - ett socialdemokratiskt dilemma : En undersökning av Socialdemokraternas politik i frågan om fristående skolor

Sammanfattning: During the 90’s, several reforms took place in order to change the educational system. The reforms intended to increase the freedom of choice and to facilitate the start-up process for driving independent schools. A broad alliance of political parties from left to right supported these reforms. Twenty years later, the independent schools constitute a substantial part of schools in Sweden. However, recently there has been a debate about the expanding number of independent schools and whether these schools should be allowed to make profits or not.   In an official statement in the autumn of 2012 the Social Democratic Party announced their new policy declaring that independent schools and freedom of choice are important parts of the educational system. To prevent independent schools from making big profits, the Social Democratic Party launched ideas such as stringent quality requirements. This enquiry analyses the motions written by members of the parliament representing the Social Democratic Party in order to distinguish the pursued policy regarding independent school during the period 2006 - 2012. In this study, I draw the conclusion that members of the parliament representing the Social Democratic Party pursued different policies in the question regarding independent schools. It turned out there was a dividing line between those who pursued traditional working class politics and those who pursued a liberal middle class politics. The former were more eager to criticise the expansion of the independent schools than the latter. Making profit in publicly funded independent schools was something that most members of the Social Democratic Party disliked, but none of them raised their voices for a prohibition.