Equality

Nordic countries are famous for their egalitarian attitudes and social policies, and so far the Finns have said nothing to contradict this. In the U.S., there's significant variance in funding between school districts. (Contrary to popular wisdom, this is not primarily a function of differences in local property wealth--state funding passed local funding as the single largest source of school revenue in the 1970s and roughly two-thirds of inter-district funding variance nationwide is a function of wealth differences between states, not differences within states. The richest states have roughly twice the taxable wealth per-student compared to the poorest, and this matches inter-state spending differences almost exactly.)  In Finland, we are told, funding is centralized and equitable; this morning the principal of a school we were visiting claimed that "It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, you go to the same school." This kind of equality is a function of a lot more than funding, of course, extending also to a national curricula and an unusually high-quality pool of well-educated teachers. 

This can create conflict with the natural desire of parents to provide more to their children, as with the case of a famous Formula One driver (last week we were told that Finns specialized in certain occupations, including race car drivers, ice hockey goalies, and international diplomats) who wanted to pay for an extra teacher specifically to benefit his son, who attended the school we visited. The principal said no, that wouldn't be possible, causing the driver to rant about this $%^&ing communist system, etc. 

Now he's supposedly planning to come to America and drive for NASCAR. So there may be some self-selection at work here as well.