The government should not introduce free choice of schools nationwide

The override of county status in this field is a threat to local democracy.

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This is a leader. The editorial expresses the journalistic idea of ​​Bergens Tidende: an independent, independent, liberal and bourgeois (non-socialist) political party newspaper.

The government has adopted introduce the so-called free choice of schools throughout the country. This was stated by the Minister of Education Guri Melby (V) in a press release on Sunday.

Although this admissions model gives students more freedom of choice, it should not be trampled on by counties that want to organize their admission in other ways.

Vestland, Viken, Agder, Vestfold and Telemark, Innlandet, Trøndelag, Nordland and Troms and Finnmark have adopted a form of local school principle.

Now these counties are being overthrown by the government.

High school it is one of the most important areas of responsibility of the municipalities of the county. When the government now adopts a national reform that deprives the county of the right to control the form of admission, it is a serious intervention in local democracy.

It is no secret that the bourgeois parties prefer the so-called free school choice. Many counties have also practiced this type of recording for a long time.

Freedom of choice and the opportunity for social mobility are important advantages of a free school choice.

Recently, several counties changed the form of admission to the more restrictive local school model; Among other things, Vestland County has advocated for this change.

With a local school model, students who live near a popular school have priority in the queue, before other students can compete for the remaining spots.

The details of it The free school choice the government wants to support is not entirely clear yet, but overall it will mean that students now compete freely in different areas of admission.

The difference is that those with the free school option are still guaranteed to enter a school in their school district, but no longer have priority at the closest school.

Despite the freedom and opportunities offered by a free school option to some students, it is not the case that the plan has overwhelming academic support, quite the contrary.

The investigation is spreading on the ground, but a clear predominance indicates that free choice of school generates more segregation and greater differences, especially in Oslo.

In less centralized parts of the country, the journey can also be excessively long if you don’t have good enough grades to get into the nearest school.

Free choice of school can they still work elsewhere, but it would be wrong for the government to enforce this solution in all counties. Especially when the reform is based on the ideology of the government and not on the consensus of research.