IKEA-Operated Schools?

The Associated Press writes about school choice in Sweden, where students and parents have, since 1992, been able to attend publicly financed, privately run schools of choice (they sound a lot like charter schools to me). And it's popular - 17 percent of high schoolers are now enrolled in one of these independent schools.

The article posits this as a radical change for Sweden, "that paragon of taxpayer-funded cradle-to-grave welfare". But 17 percent enrollment in privately run public schools would be pretty revolutionary for the U.S., too, and this isn't exactly a "cradle-to-grave" country.