You might expect a government pledged to doing 'what works' to be interested in 'what works where', especially when embarking on a 'pivotal'
and 'irreversible' educational revolution.
Tony Blair's plan - to release schools from local authorities, freeing them to decide how to select pupils, courses and teaching methods, all in the name of parent and pupil choice - should be compared to how things work in other sectors and societies.
Childcare is the most privatised and fragmented sector of our education system. But if we were starting again, would we organise it this way? Don't most parents, and indeed providers, laugh at the notion of choice?
Britain is one of the least well educated among equivalent economies and one of the most socially polarised. Britain and the US stand out as societies marked by their lack of social mobility - and in Britain this has actually got worse since Labour was elected in 1997.
It makes sense, therefore, to look at what works better elsewhere. Our gaze is inevitably directed towards Sweden, close to the top of the education league tables, and one of the most socially mobile and successful societies in the world.
A decade ago Sweden reformed its education structure as part of a general trend towards the decentralisation of delivery and decision-making. It was devolved to municipalities - the public authorities that Mr Blair wants to relieve of responsibility for providing education.
The Swedish approach encourages creativity, diversity and research, and its priority is to expand choice for pupils between different types of schools - vocational and academic - and different study routes.
Local authorities bear responsibility, but are allowed the freedom to run schools through locally-devised structures.
The principle of equivalent access, regardless of residential area, social background or ethnicity, is a pillar of the system. It guarantees that background is less likely to define a Swedish than a British child's future.
Churches and businesses seem to be the only enthusiasts for Blair's schools White Paper. Is a plethora of private providers what parents mean by choice? Or is this a way of not confronting the resource crisis in our schools system? Choice is only prized by parents because they have so much failure to choose from.
