Magdalena Andersson was first out of the party leaders when Almedalen Week began in Visby on Sunday. With him to Gotland, the Prime Minister had a fresh election promise from the Social Democrats. S wants to introduce a ban on profiteering from schools. She believes that the current model of school groups making big profits has reached the end of the road.
– We can not continue to patch and repair in a system that is rigged for segregation and joy ratings, says Magdalena Andersson.
The Prime Minister emphasizes that Sweden is the only country in the world that has admitted the profit interest in the tax-financed school. She also points out that a majority of Swedish voters want to see a stop to profiting from school.
– The result of privatization is clear. Money that leaks out of school, increased segregation and larger gaps between people, without us having made any knowledge gain, says Magdalena Andersson.
She believes that the current system allows school groups to act freely without having the best interests of the children in mind and instead make sure to make as much profit as possible.
– The starting point for running a school should be the children’s learning, not profit hunting.
The S government has now decided to appoint an inquiry that will come up with concrete proposals on how a profit ban for independent schools should be designed. An assignment for the investigator will be to propose how existing schools should be able to continue their activities, without making a profit. Magdalena Andersson does not want to go into whether this means that school activities may no longer be conducted in the form of a limited company.
– There are opportunities here for the currently for-profit schools to switch to a non-profit business. Many of the people who run these schools claim that they do so because they are interested in pedagogy and the children’s education. Then it is no problem to adjust, she says.
S also proposes a stop to the new establishment of religious independent schools. There is already such a proposal prepared in the Government Offices and S now wants to move forward with it. Magdalena Andersson emphasizes that she likes to go further than that and also bans other religious independent schools.
– We Social Democrats are prepared to take further steps in that area.
Visited earlier in the day Magdalena Andersson regiment P18 outside Visby. She was then pressured by several media about what she has promised Turkey in connection with the negotiations on a Swedish NATO membership. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Sweden and Finland have promised to extradite 73 people to Turkey.
– There have been different figures that have appeared, but in Sweden we have authorities that work with these issues so it is a work that will continue during this period, says Magdalena Andersson.
She does not want to confirm whether Sweden and Turkey have negotiated how many people will be extradited.
– I usually never tell what happens in the negotiation room. I think that in the long run it is not something that benefits agreements, says Magdalena Andersson.