The investigator Joakim Stymne proposes in the partial report "Stricter conditions for the independent school sector" several restrictions on the right to distribute profits from independent schools and preschools.
In the event of both the establishment of a new school and when a principal gets a new owner, a ban on profit distribution is proposed for five years. It will also be prohibited to receive state subsidies for quality-enhancing measures and at the same time take out profits or make other "value transfers", according to the proposal.
Stymne also wants to see requirements for separate accounting in the Education Act, which means that individual principals with operations in more than one school will have to report them separately.
Firstly, it stops short-term actors who want to make quick profits. Secondly, it strengthens the opportunities to build a stable economy. Thirdly, it strikes hard at quality deficiencies, says Stymne at a press conference.
Last but not least, it will significantly increase transparency around the use of school funding.
Quick profits
Violating the bans will lead to tangible penalties.
Are there many short-term actors on the Swedish school market who want to make quick profits?
It's a bit difficult to say. There has been criticism that principals have used money for things that are not school activities, and that it has affected quality. But it has not been possible to follow up.
Stymne was given the task in 2023 to propose restrictions, but not a total ban, on profit-taking for independent school owners. Therefore, no profit ban is proposed, as the Social Democrats have demanded.
The Social Democrats have been talking about independent schools for at least 25 years, they haven't done anything about them. Now this change is happening and I'm very glad for it, says Johan Pehrson, and adds that "speculators should get out of school with their heads held high".
There have been built-in flaws in the independent school system and there has been extensive naivety around independent schools, including in my own party, he continues.
Ongoing opportunity
Independent schools still have a role to play, he says.
No one will, in my assessment, be interested in opening a school for economic reasons. But that a school is run on grounds other than making quick profits will naturally still be possible.
The law change is proposed to come into effect on July 1, 2027. Pehrson says that a government bill will be presented before the parliamentary election next year.
We have ordered the proposals and hope to get them in place as soon as possible.
