I just read an article from The Atlantic touting the Finnish educational system, which is run based on the premise that every child deserves equal access to a good education. The writer contrasted the Finnish educational system to the educational system in the United States by noting that the Finnish system does not have the option for private schools, while the United States educational system does.

There is definitely a lot to be admired in the Finnish educational system; the Finns I have met personally contend that the high school educations they received in Finland were superior to the public university educations that they received in the United States. The individualized attention in Finland also helps the students learn more quickly.

One strength of the Finnish system is that Finns only have to take one standardized test; as a result, Finland does not link funds to student performance as is the case in the United States under the No Child Left Behind Act.

As the article in The Atlantic observes, however, there are other enormous differences between Finland and the United States in terms of educational funding and discrepancies between school districts. Finland's population is approximately 5.3 million people, which is smaller than the population of the state of Washington. In addition, most of the students in Finland are native to the country, which means that Finnish schools do not have the challenges of teaching students from diverse cultures.

Finland is fortunate enough to own the successful cellular phone company Nokia. The small nation prides itself on socialism—something that has been demonized of late in the the United States--and as a result is able to fund both education and health care better than most countries.

Comparing Finland's education system to the education system in the United States won't provide many answers for the struggles that American schools face. We live in a nation known for not taxing some of their major corporations as opposed to a nation who is able to fund their education through the ownership of Nokia.

The United States education system is further complicated because it is funded through three different levels: federal, state, and local. I imagine that the funding and policies implemented in Finland make reforms much easier to implement than in the United States. As much as many Americans would like to dream of having Finland’s education system in the United States, the reality is that the United States has a long way to go before the majority of school districts have education systems which are on par with Finland.