Politics is more than words at a podium

I have been a part-time local politician in Örebro since 2011, and throughout those years I have been in opposition. It is hard. You want so much but achieve so little. Even so, there are few things I would rather spend my time on, because politics can be so much more than big words at a podium. For me, it is about making a real difference for Örebro’s pupils.

In recent years I have put forward 148 political actions for Örebro’s schools: proposals, initiatives, interpellations, questions and press releases. The governing majority usually says no. That is understandable in a way — it is not Örebroliberalerna’s budget that applies. But even a defeated proposal plants seeds, and more often than not I see what I suggested become reality further down the line, just without a formal decision that gives us credit. When that happens I smile quietly to myself. It has still meant something for our children and young people, and that is what matters most.

Sometimes things actually go our way in the committee. In the Basic School Committee, Örebroliberalerna put forward a proposal to introduce SAO jobs in Örebro — a paid complement to work-experience placements that has proven successful in municipalities such as Sundsvall and Uppsala, and is now being introduced in Gothenburg among others. The aim is to get certain young people back on track in life. The proposal received support in the committee. I was genuinely pleased — not primarily because we won, but because young people in Örebro will benefit. The fact that so many parties can unite in the middle of an election campaign shows that we can move forward by reasoning together and treating one another with respect. That, to me, is how politics should work.

But respect and consensus only go so far. Örebro’s compulsory schools face problems that demand more, and I am not content merely to point them out — I want the mandate to solve them. Both my own experience and the statistics show that we are underperforming. Pupils are not getting the support and teaching they need, and roughly one quarter of pupils leave year nine without eligibility for upper secondary school — around ten percentage points worse than the national average. I have proposed both smaller classes and a maximum group-size cap for preschool, but both proposals were voted down. We liberals love education and learning — the things that make both ourselves and society as a whole stronger — and we have more proposals in our budget to turn things around.

That is why I find it remarkable that Örebropartiet — which according to the local newspaper NA’s opinion poll would collect just over 18 percent of the vote if there were an election today — has, as far as I can recall, never put forward a single initiative of its own in the Basic School Committee. They even voted yes to our SAO proposal.

So I ask you, when you go to vote: do you want politicians who put forward proposals and make a concrete difference for pupils, or is it enough with big words at a podium?