Public Sector Entrepreneurship and Independent schools

The aim of this paper is to highlight entrepreneurship in the process to start and run an independent school, and to indicate different types of entrepreneurship that emerges in such processes. Until the early 1990s, private schools an unknown phenomenon in Sweden. A few so-called private schools existed but that was basically everything. With the center-right government change of regulation it became possible for private owners to start independent primary and secondary education. The changes also meant that private schools were entitled to municipal grants. (SFS 1985:1100) With these changes, the nature of the Swedish school system changed. The changes meant that Sweden went from a school with state principal of a school with both municipal and private owners. The new school system has a more diverse construction which gave rise to a host of new actors in the education field. The political changes of the structure have created a marketplace for educational actors. This marketplace is the breeding ground for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship can be based in the idea of creating an educational model or the economic incentive to a corporate run school. It also varies on the subject or the actual operation as the basis for entrepreneurship. In conclusion we can say that entrepreneurship can be about; a) the operation or the start of operations. b) The operation can be about the form or content c) The start can be economically justified or justified pedagogically However, there are private schools that can not be started or driven from an entrepreneurial perspective and it is this difference between types of private schools that will be developed in this paper.