Thanks for the answer my Sweedish friend,
No problemo, ask anything you want, this is one of the few issues where my country is ahead with an interesting right-winged idea, so I feel happy explaining it
!
What type of things would keep a school from being certified, besides the obvious.
I am not sure what you mean by obvious...
They have to offer an education comparable to that of public shools, giving the pupils access to everything they should have, they have to be in compliance with ground rules concerning school policies, not smacking them, teaching the democratic ideals upheld by society, and so on. There isn't a lot of controversial stuff, there is a fair amount of flexibility, so schools can look pretty different. The basic principle is that pupils going to voucher school should have the same chances as those in public schools and vice versa. One voucher school was recently close to shut-down, b/c their grading system made it easier for their pupils to achieve high grades. Also, voucher schools are not allowed to charge students, if they do they don't recieve any public money.