A Comparative Study of Georgia and Sweden’s Education Systems (Part 2 – Educational Insights Series)

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11 min read

Last updated October 14, 2026

Last updated October 14, 2026: population, teacher pay, and spending figures updated, the duplicated Sweden primer removed, the school funding and PISA comparisons corrected, and a FAQ, poll, and Bottom Line added.

In Part 1 of this series, we took apart the American education machine layer by layer. Now for the interesting part: watching a different machine do the same job. Georgia and Sweden make a fair fight. Georgia counted 11,180,878 people in the Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate. Sweden has about 10.6 million. One is a state inside a federal system, the other a sovereign country, and that difference alone explains half of what follows. The other half is choices.

I taught in Georgia schools for eleven years, so I know our side of this comparison from the inside: strong local control, wide gaps between rich and poor districts, and superintendents whose pay would make a Swedish education chief blink. Sweden offers nearly the opposite recipe: a national curriculum, schools funded mainly by municipalities with state help to even things out, no grades until students are about twelve, and a free lunch for every child. Neither system is a paradise. Both can teach the other something.

If any Swedish readers land here and spot a mistake about their country, the comments are open and I will fix it. Tack.

Professor Winston Wants to Know

Our resident watchdog is taking the temperature of the room.

Which Swedish idea should Georgia try first?

One tap, no account or email needed. Results are shown after you vote.

Which Swedish idea should Georgia try first?

Free school lunch for every studentNo grades until middle schoolStudents choose a high school programLeader pay closer to teacher pay

Cast your voteSee results

Want to say more? The comments below are open.

Contents

• A Primer on the Swedish Education System for Americans
• Becoming a Teacher in Georgia and Sweden
• Teacher Pay: Georgia vs Sweden
• Leaders, and What Leaders Are Paid
• Funding, Spending, and Results
• The Bottom Line
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Primer on the Swedish Education System for Americans

Swedish education rests on a simple promise: a child’s schooling should not depend on the family’s income or address. Children enter preschool from age one, with fees capped by law, and the preschool class at age six is compulsory. Compulsory school then runs for nine years, followed by three years of upper secondary school that nearly everyone attends.

Respect First, Grades Later

Swedish students receive no formal grades until year 6, at about age twelve. Teachers give regular feedback and development talks with each child and family instead, and problems are discussed privately, never as public ranking. When grades arrive, they run from A to F. Whether delaying grades protects children or merely delays information is debated in Sweden too, and the debate never quite ends.

Free Means Free

Public schooling in Sweden is free at every level, and free means more than tuition. School lunch is served free to every student ages six to sixteen, and by law it must be nutritious. Materials are provided, and higher education charges Swedish and EU students no tuition. Most schools are run by municipalities. About 15 percent of compulsory school students attend publicly funded independent schools, which may not charge fees either.

Choosing a Path at Fifteen

There is no assigned neighborhood high school in the American sense. At about fifteen, Swedish students apply to upper secondary school and, more precisely, to one of eighteen national programs inside it, academic tracks such as natural science, social science, and economics, and vocational tracks such as electricity, restaurant and food, and health and social care. Students who know their direction can start early. Students who do not can choose a broad academic program and keep their options open.

Support Built Into the Building

Every Swedish school works with student health teams, and teachers hold individual development conversations with their students. Reading, writing, and attention difficulties trigger individual support plans rather than a wait and hope approach. Problem solving in subjects like math is graded on the reasoning shown, not only the final answer, which will sound familiar to any Georgia teacher who has ever begged students to show their work.

Becoming a Teacher in Georgia and Sweden

Georgia’s road is structured and test gated. Earn a bachelor’s degree, complete an approved teacher preparation program with classroom practice, and pass the GACE assessments in your subject and in pedagogy to earn state certification. Sweden’s road runs through university teacher programs whose length depends on the level taught, with upper secondary teachers generally completing a longer degree, closer to a master’s. Swedish teachers can also change subjects later by adding a supplementary program, a flexibility Georgia teachers, locked into certificate fields, mostly do not have. Both systems insist, correctly, that teaching is a profession to be trained for, not a fallback for the undecided.

Teacher Pay: Georgia vs Sweden

The original version of this article put Georgia’s average teacher pay at about $58,000. That figure is history. The National Education Association’s current reporting puts Georgia’s average teacher salary at $71,524, ranked 21st in the nation, with starting pay around $48,722. Wealthy metro districts pay well above the average, rural districts below it, and a Georgia teacher’s health insurance and retirement costs come out of a thinner public safety net than a Swede’s.

Swedish teacher pay is set through collective bargaining and individual negotiation, and it is quoted in kronor for a reason: dollar conversions swing with the exchange rate. A Swedish secondary teacher averages about 457,800 SEK a year, roughly 38,000 SEK a month, with experienced teachers and those in shortage subjects earning more. Converted at recent rates that is well under Georgia’s average in raw dollars. Then the comparison turns. The Swedish teacher’s salary sits on top of universal health care, a strong public pension, generous paid parental leave, and five or more weeks of vacation as a legal norm. The Georgia teacher’s higher number carries more of life’s risks on its own back. Which teacher is better paid depends on whether you count only the paycheck or the whole bargain, a question Georgia’s teacher shortage keeps asking.

Leaders, and What Leaders Are Paid

Georgia has 181 school districts, each run by a superintendent working with an elected local board, under a state superintendent who is also elected statewide. Sweden has 290 municipalities, each with an education director, a bildningschef, who runs local schools inside a national curriculum and national inspection system. Same job family, very different pay philosophy.

The Georgia Superintendent Premium

Open Georgia, the state’s public salary database, has long shown Georgia’s top superintendents out earning the governor. In 2021, Gwinnett County’s Alvin Wilbanks topped the list at $641,955, followed by Pickens County at $507,659, Clayton County at $440,566, Cobb County at $432,105, and Clarke County at $418,058, while the governor’s salary stood at $175,000. Those are 2021 figures and officeholders have changed since, but the structure that produced them has not: big districts compete for superintendents the way colleges compete for football coaches, and cars, allowances, and retirement sweeteners stack on top of base pay. A Swedish bildningschef, by comparison, typically earns 750,000 to 950,000 SEK a year, a solid professional salary that stays within sight of what the municipality’s senior teachers earn. Sweden compresses the ladder. Georgia stretches it, then acts surprised when classroom teachers notice.

When the Top Job Goes Wrong

High pay with weak oversight invites abuse, and Georgia has the case files to prove it. The worst I know is Romain Dallemand, Bibb County’s superintendent from 2011 to 2013, whose technology deals bypassed bidding law and board procedure. He was convicted of tax fraud in Florida, a federal judge ordered $47 million in damages to the district, and the total cost to Bibb County has been estimated at about $54 million. DeKalb County’s Crawford Lewis faced felony and RICO charges. Atlanta’s Beverly Hall presided over the most infamous test cheating scandal in American education. None of this proves superintendents are overpaid as a class. It proves that a powerful, highly paid executive job supervising other people’s money needs boards that read contracts and ask rude questions. Bibb County’s board, in the Dallemand years, largely did neither, a failure this site documented in its watchdog coverage of packaged leadership programs and the Bibb series.

Funding, Spending, and Results

One correction matters here. The original version of this article said Sweden funds schools primarily from the state. In fact, Swedish schools are funded mainly by their municipalities, from local income taxes, with the national government setting the curriculum, inspecting schools, and sending equalization money so poor municipalities are not left behind. It is local funding engineered to behave like equal funding. Georgia funds schools from state, federal, and local sources, with local property taxes carrying a heavy share, so a district’s wealth is visible in its buildings, its course catalog, and its ability to hold onto teachers.

On spending, the National Center for Education Statistics puts Georgia’s current spending at $15,767 per pupil in fiscal 2024, close to the national average of $17,644. And on results, honesty requires retiring the original article’s claim that Swedish students significantly outperform American students. In PISA 2022, the OECD’s test of fifteen year olds, Sweden beat the United States in math, 482 to 465. The United States beat Sweden in reading, 504 to 487, and edged it in science, 499 to 494. Both countries sit near or above the OECD averages, and both fell from their pre pandemic marks. Sweden’s system is more equal. America’s is more varied, with higher highs and lower lows. Those are different virtues, and pretending one scoreboard settles the argument helps neither country.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Swedish students really get no grades until year 6?

Yes. Formal grades begin in year 6, at about age twelve. Before that, teachers give written feedback and hold development talks with each student and family, so parents are informed without a letter grade ranking young children.

Is school really free in Sweden, including lunch?

Yes for public schools. Tuition, materials, and a nutritious school lunch are free for students ages six to sixteen, funded by taxes. Independent schools receiving public funding may not charge fees either.

How much do Georgia teachers make compared with Swedish teachers?

The NEA reports a Georgia average of $71,524. A Swedish secondary teacher averages about 457,800 SEK a year. Georgia’s number is higher in dollars, but Swedish teachers receive universal health care, stronger pensions, and more paid leave as part of the overall bargain.

Why do Georgia superintendents earn so much more than Swedish education directors?

Georgia’s 181 districts bid against each other for superintendents in an executive labor market, and total pay often includes cars, allowances, and retirement contributions. Swedish municipalities hire education directors inside a compressed public sector pay culture, typically at 750,000 to 950,000 SEK a year.

Which system performs better, Georgia or Sweden?

There is no clean winner. Sweden’s results are more even across students, and it led in PISA 2022 math. The United States led in PISA reading and science, and Georgia’s spending per pupil, $15,767 in fiscal 2024, is substantial. Sweden’s clearest win is equality of conditions, not a test score sweep.

Sources

• National Education Association, Educator Pay and Student Spending (Georgia average and starting teacher salaries)
• National Center for Education Statistics, Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, School Year 2023-24 (Georgia per pupil spending)
• OECD PISA 2022 results, mean scores for Sweden and the United States in reading, mathematics, and science
• Open Georgia, state salary and travel database (2021 superintendent compensation figures)

Return to the start of the series: Part 1, how the US education system is built and funded.

So tell me: Georgia gets to import exactly one Swedish idea, free lunch for every student, no grades until middle school, student chosen high school programs, or superintendent pay kept within sight of teacher pay. Which one do you pick, and which one do you think Georgia parents would pick?