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Jon Olson’s top recommendation to the Minnesota Legislature this year (“10 bold initiatives for Minnesota,” Opinion Exchange, Feb. 13) is to “adopt the Finnish education system.” Probably this is because a decade ago, PISA, the international assessment of student achievement, was showing Finland’s students top in the world.
What could be more obvious: Let’s just do what Finland does! Unfortunately, most of what appears online is praise for the results. Legislators might want to know a bit more about what specifically that would involve.
I went with the American delegation to Finland in 2012. Here’s what the 40 of us heard.
Basically, we saw a remarkable program of aid to parents and young children, parental leave and child care, on top of which is a fairly conventional school system. Classrooms, desks, maps on the wall. Not much different from what you see in a “good” American school.
What is truly different about Finland, and not explained to outsiders (probably because for the Finns it is their “given”) is the organization and operation of the system.
Public education in Finland is a municipal responsibility. There are no separate, elected, boards of education. Education is a department of city government. Helsinki handles public education, as it handles public works, public parks, public libraries, public welfare and other public services.