The issue of the public's right to insight into privately owned, but tax-funded, schools has been debated and investigated for years. Two possible solutions were presented in an investigation proposal this spring.
One option is that the constitutionally established principle of public access to information should also apply to independent schools, in exactly the same way as for municipal schools.
The other proposal involves a special law on public access to information for independent schools, with certain limitations on the information that independent schools are required to disclose. This proposal was put forward after the current government took office and is in line with the Tidö Agreement. The motivation has been that full public access would be too labor-intensive for small independent school owners.
"Reasonable time"
But now that the report is out for consultation, a third proposal has been added. It was developed at the Government Offices and proposes that independent schools be covered by the principle of public access to information, but that principals who only own one or two schools are not required to provide the same rapid service. A parent, journalist, or anyone else who wants to gain insight into the school's activities should be able to access information "within a reasonable time" and not "promptly". This means, according to the proposal, one week instead of one day. It is also proposed to have milder requirements regarding archiving and how the public can access documents.
Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L) sees two strong reasons why the principle of public access to information should apply to all schools: Firstly, it is the simplest way to ensure future access to statistics on schools, and secondly, the principle of public access to information is well-established.
With a public access law, we risk having to wait and see how it works before we can implement it, she says.
Legal competence
She sees no risk that small independent schools would deliberately delay information.
The idea is to make it manageable for operations that do not have their own lawyers and may have difficulty quickly determining what should be disclosed or not. Information about individual students should not be disclosed, for example.
All opposition parties want the principle of public access to information to be introduced for independent schools. This also applies to the Liberals, who have changed their stance on the issue. The new, third proposal could be seen as a possible way for the Liberals to get the other Tidö parties on board.
We need to have a discussion. But the other Tidö parties have thought it interesting to have this proposal reviewed through a consultation process, says Lotta Edholm.
Anna Lena Wallström/TT
Facts: The three proposals
TT
The three proposals in brief:
1. The principle of public access to information should apply to independent schools in the same way as to municipal schools.
2. A tailored public access law, which provides limited access to independent schools' documents.
3. The principle of public access to information should apply to independent schools, but with lower requirements for the smallest independent school owners. This applies, for example, to how quickly the requested documents should be expedited. Larger independent school owners will have relief rules during the first year that the principle of public access to information comes into effect.
Source: Ministry of Education
