Liberals would like nothing better than to make America more like Sweden, the very model of the Socialist state. Or would they? No one has fought harder than the liberal education establishment against school choice. But, it turns out, Sweden practices school choice extensively. What's more, it works. That is the conclusion of two researchers at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm. They examined the proposition that vouchers hurt public schools, which is an article of faith among American liberals. They found the proposition to be -- in non-educational terminology -- hogwash. "We find that the extent of competition from independent schools, measured as the proportion of students in the municipality that goes to independent schools, improves both the test results and the grades in public schools. ...The improvement is significant both in statistical and real terms." Oddly enough, that's what American research has found. In Sweden, the government has for the past 10 years offered parents up to 75 percent of the per student cost of their local public school. It can be used anywhere, even at a "religious" school. OK, a bureaucrat has to approve the choice, but what would you expect in a worker's paradise? As for "creaming," the flighty theory that the best take the vouchers and leave the public schools with the rest: the study finds that fear "without foundation." Access the study: http://www.iui.se/wp/Wp578/Wp578.htm